Erling Haaland endured a tough afternoon as England beat Norway 2-1 in extra time to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
Erling Haaland wants England to win the World Cup after Norway loses
Erling Haaland has insisted he will support England after Norway’s World Cup dreams come to an end.
The father of the Manchester City phenomenon, Alf Inge, was bitter about the defeat, writing in X: “Well done to (Jude) Bellingham and the referee.”
But striker Haaland was a little more polite, and when asked if he would support the Three Lions in future, he replied: “Yeah, no. I have some friends from City in England and of course I wish them the best. When I was a kid I bought an England shirt before I bought a Norway shirt.”
The prolific 25-year-old also paid tribute to his former Borussia Dortmund teammate Bellingham after beating the Vikings with a double. “Jude is a good friend,” Haaland added. “We’ve had two great years at Dortmund. We’re good friends and he’s a very nice guy. I’m not surprised that he scored today and performed as well as he should. The only thing is that sometimes he gets criticized a little too much for not scoring enough goals. I think that’s unfair.”
Norway international and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was not so kind.
FIFA says otherwise, but he felt Bellingham’s equalizer should have been canceled out for a choke for allegedly hitting the spider cam.
“Honestly, it’s a comedy that something like that is allowed to decide a World Cup match at this level, but look, I haven’t seen the footage properly yet,” Odegaard said.
“From what I heard, it hit a wire or a cord or something there. And the goal was disallowed, and the footage was just bittersweet.”
Erling Haaland endured a tough afternoon for Norway (Image: FIFA via Getty Images)
Manager Jordan Pickford revealed that England did not intend to focus solely on stopping Haaland. “Everyone knows how good of a player Erling is, but we also know how good of a team Norway is.
“This is not just an individual game, it’s a team game and they played well today.
“They scored, but we fought back and had to go deep in overtime to get the result.”
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