I really don’t think that FIFA could have asked for a better group of eight teams to be in the World Cup quarterfinals. They are going to eliminate one of the best teams in the sport with this game, and one of the more popular teams or players remaining, but they still have gotten some of the more familiar people and teams to where they want them.
Today’s game between Norway and England should be among the better matchups of the tournament.
Norway has one of the most popular players in the entire World Cup. It also seems like the entire world has adopted Norway as one of their favorite team. The row is going wild, people are chanting Skol, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen about a million Erling Haaland clips on TikTok lately. Haaland is one of the more entertaining players in the sport, and it seems like he genuinely has fun playing and interacting with the crowd. He is still in the Golden Boot conversation and has established himself as one of the best goal scorers in the world.
If you need evidence of that, go back and watch him play in his last game against Brazil. Haaland basically played dead for a while and then got into position and headed in a goal. Then he booted a goal through a defender’s legs and into the back of the net. It was remarkable to watch.
Before that, they took down the Ivory Coast 2-1. Their lone loss of the World Cup came in a game they didn’t play anyone significant – namely, Haaland – against France. Their first two games weren’t against overly difficult opponents, but they still took advantage of the matchups and won 3-2 over Senegal and 4-1 over Iraq.
England has had a much more difficult path to get to this game. They have built a strong team, mostly led by Harry Kane, who has done his fair share of goal scoring in this World Cup. Kane has six goals, and Jordan Bellingham isn’t all that far behind at four. The 1-2 punch is something that Norway does not have. England hasn’t looked elite in most of the games, but if you watched the Mexico game, and more people than in the history of the World Cup did, you saw just how smart and talented they can be.
The Mexico game will be one that will be remembered forever. Perhaps that is because they had to play a man down for almost 30 minutes, and then England was on defense for what seemed like the entirety of the time. In the end, they escaped with a 3-2 win. Prior to that, they struggled against Congo before Kane scored two late goals. In the Group Round, they looked better, but didn’t face a ton of tough competition. They beat Panama 2-0, played Ghana to a draw, and defeated Croatia 4-2.
There are two stars in this game in Kane and Haaland. Let’s just assume they cancel each other out. I think that’s a fair assumption to make. I could see both of them scoring or both not scoring. I think they will get the attention and be double-teamed as much as possible. That does mean that they need to rely on other players to win this for them. England will be without Jarell Quansah, who received the red card (unless it is rescinded).
However, the team still has Bellingham, who has been very strong, especially lately. I think the better and smarter team is England. Norway is the feel-good story, but when it comes down to it, I think England will come out victorious. Haaland isn’t someone to doubt, but the totality of the teams leads me to take England on the 90-minute moneyline.
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