Norway marked its return to the World Cup in winning fashion with a 4-1 victory over Iraq on Tuesday night at Boston Stadium.
The Norwegians have frequently been mentioned as a possible dark horse in this tournament after its perfect run through UEFA qualifying. While this game was far from perfect for them — and Iraq deserves some credit for that for their effort in the first 75 minutes — ultimately, Norway was clearly the deserved winners.
With the win, Norway joins France atop the Group I table at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup:
(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Erling Haaland was one of the most eagerly anticipated players at this tournament. The Manchester City forward has accomplished everything possible at the club level. But the international side of the game is a completely different story.
This is Norway’s first World Cup since 1998. The Scandinavian country has also not appeared for the European Championships since 2000. Two weeks after Euro 2000, Haaland was born and, just under 26 years later, he would bring the team back.
Haaland has been exceptional for Norway, and he now has 57 goals in 51 games, but this is his first game in a major international tournament. His debut was exceptional as he scored twice in the first half help Norway pull ahead for good.
The first goal was Haaland at his best when he made a run into the box that was almost impossible to stop. When a team is moving forward from a wide position, Haaland is special at making runs into the box where he can get behind just about any defense.
Haaland’s second goal was all effort, as he closed down and forced a mistake. On the final goal deep into stoppage time, Haaland was pushing for the hat trick and his header eventually resulted in an own goal.
With this game, Haaland showed the world that he is ready to be a force in the international game just as he is with Manchester City. The World Cup is better with him in it.
(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
But in this game, Iraq was prepared and made the focal point of trying to contain Ødegaard. Stopping Haaland is often impossible, so the approach is typically to try to cut off service into him or try to close passing lanes that often prevent the ball from getting out wide.
For the first 75 minutes, Iraq put on a better performance than expected because of its strong play in the midfield. This was far from the case of an underdog sitting deep and bunkering to keep the score close. Iraq came to play against Norway.
Amir Al-Ammari, who plays for Cracovia in Poland, had an especially strong performance as he helped in possession and in creating multiple chances. It was his assist to Ayman Hussein who pulled Iraq even in the 39th minute.
But Iraq is surely asking itself the painful question of what could have been? With the score 1-1, defender Zaid Tahseen had the ball by himself wide right. Instead of playing the ball forward, he made an inexcusable error of playing the ball back to his keeper Jalal Hassan while under the pressure of an onrushing Haaland. Tasheen’s pass was too light and Hassan made an error to try to clear in the direction of Haaland. Instead, the ball went back into his own goal.
Norway went on to score again on a set piece with Iraq pushing forward and the final goal came with Iraq worn down and defeated, but ultimately the error was extremely costly and things could have been different had it been avoided.
Group I is widely considered the most difficult group at this World Cup with one of the best teams in the world in France, arguably the top team in Africa in Senegal, a Norwegian team that has many good players, and Iraq.
With its two toughest games coming later, Norway needed to leave this game with three points. Four points is often considered the “magic number” to secure advancement. Three might be enough but four is likely enough to finish as one of the eight best third place teams.
Norway next faces a Senegal team that should be desperate after a tough and hard-fought loss to France. It should be an excellent game.
Iraq was very unlucky to be placed in a tough group where it is a heavy underdog in all three games. While it played well at times, it wasn’t close to being enough.
