{"id":2143,"date":"2025-12-05T02:09:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:09:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:09:46","slug":"2026-world-cup-draw-why-erling-haaland-and-norway-will-dictate-group-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=2143","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Draw: Why Erling Haaland and Norway Will Dictate &#039;Group of Death&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature 48 different countries, the most in the history of the tournament of the 96-year-old tournament. As a result, the level of talent will be more evenly spread out with 12 groups as opposed to the usual eight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>What we can say with confidence, however, is that the group that Erling Haaland and Norway are drawn into will be the dreaded &#8220;Group of Death.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>Norway finished UEFA World Cup qualifying with a perfect record (8W-0D-0L) but will enter Friday&#8217;s draw as a Pot 3 team due to it being ranked 29th in the world by FIFA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>&#8220;They&#8217;re way better than a Pot 3 team,&#8221; U.S. men&#8217;s national team legend Landon Donovan said on FOX Sports&#8217; World Cup Draw Preview Show. &#8220;They&#8217;re not a Pot 1 team, but they&#8217;re a top Pot 2. It&#8217;s just recent that this form has come, so it hasn&#8217;t caught up yet, but they are good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>Norway is led by its star striker Erling Haaland. Haaland, who stands at 6-foot-5, finished World Cup qualifying with 16 goals, which tied the record for most goals scored by a player in a single World Cup qualifying campaign, set by Poland&#8217;s Robert Lewandowski in 2018. The next-closest player, Austria&#8217;s Marko Arnautovi\u0107, had eight goals during qualifying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>&#8220;If you have to play against a player like that, it is a nightmare,&#8221; Donovan said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a nightmare in a World Cup. You get isolated in a 1-v-1, it&#8217;s a disaster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt &#8211; AMA\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>That's not to mention the supporting cast around Haaland, who have been hailed by many, including U.S. Soccer legend Cobi Jones, as the country's \"Golden Generation.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>\"Antonio Nusa and Oscar Bobb, the wingers that Norway has, they're electric 1-v-1 in dribbling and taking you on,\" Jones said. \"Martin Odegaard and his fantastic left foot. They\u2019re good all the way around, solid.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>A team might get a favorable matchup in Pot 2, but make no mistake: no one is safe until Norway's name is called in Pot 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97>Coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw will start at 11:30 a.m. ET on FOX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-160ccf97><i>Want great stories delivered right to your inbox?\u00a0<\/i><i><u>Create or log in to your FOX Sports account<\/u><\/i><i> and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!<\/i><\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature 48 different countries, the most in the history of the tournament of the 96-year-old tournament. As a result, the level of talent will be more evenly spread out with 12 groups as opposed to the usual eight. What we can say with confidence, however, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}