Erling Haaland\u2019s day ended earlier than many expected. About 15 minutes later, Norway\u2019s run in the World Cup<\/u> ended as well.<\/p>\n
The Vikings\u2019 biggest star didn\u2019t shine Saturday.<\/p>\n
Haaland<\/u> was a nonfactor for much of his team\u2019s quarterfinal against England and \u2014 at least in part because of the strain of dealing with hot and humid conditions in South Florida \u2014 was taken out with Norway\u2019s hopes hanging in the balance going into the final 15 minutes of extra time.<\/p>\n
The final score: England 2, Norway 1<\/u>. Haaland was kept off the scoresheet for the first time in this World Cup; he had scored seven times in his four appearances going into Saturday, but barely had a chance to add to that total Saturday.<\/p>\n
“This has been an insane journey,” Haaland said.<\/p>\n
Haaland acknowledged afterward that his energy was gone as the game, which was played with a heat index topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), wore along.<\/p>\n
“It was not a tough decision to take him out,” Norway coach St\u00e5le Solbakken said. “He was finished. Maybe I should have taken him out 10 minutes before. … He also got a dead leg in the second half, so that combined with the fatigue. He did everything he could.”<\/p>\n
The Manchester City striker was, without question, one of the stars of the tournament \u2014 but England silenced him. And his former Borussia Dortmund teammate, Jude Bellingham, wound up stealing the show by scoring both goals.<\/p>\n
Haaland and Bellingham shared an embrace when the game ended, before the Norwegian striker made the long, slow walk from the field to the locker room for the final time in this World Cup.<\/p>\n
He was already a star within the sport coming into the tournament \u2014 but his larger-than-most-in-soccer frame and larger-than-life personality, combined with his long blond hair and unique mannerisms, turned Haaland into a soccer folk hero.<\/p>\n
“I think this has changed my life, to be honest,” Haaland said.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s plan \u2014 forged in part by his Manchester City teammates and others who have played with and against him at the club level \u2014 was clear: Do not let Haaland get the ball. It was largely successful.<\/p>\n
Haaland had two shot attempts in the game, one on goal, and was virtually silenced after the first half. There was a 2-on-1 chance late in the first half where a pass didn\u2019t go his way; if it had, that may have been his best scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much for him to get excited about the rest of the way. He stayed on the field for a few minutes after the final whistle, saluting Norway\u2019s fans after the team\u2019s best World Cup run ever. When the 2030 tournament rolls around, it won\u2019t be a surprise if Norway makes another deep run \u2014 and that\u2019s clearly going to be the goal.<\/p>\n
“I think we put Norway on the map,” he said.<\/p>\n
Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Erling Haaland\u2019s day ended earlier than many expected. About 15 minutes later, Norway\u2019s run in the World Cup ended as well. The Vikings\u2019 biggest star didn\u2019t shine Saturday. Haaland was a nonfactor for much of his team\u2019s quarterfinal against England and \u2014 at least in part because of the strain of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6571","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=6571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}