Haaland bags brace on World Cup debut as Norway beat
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- Haaland scored twice on his World Cup finals debut in Norway's 4-1 win over Iraq, sliding in his first from David Moller Wolfe's cross to end a 10,220-day wait for a Norwegian World Cup goal — the previous one came in 1998, 759 days before he was born.
- Iraq head coach Graham Arnold told Haaland post-match he was "one of the best number nines I've ever seen," adding: "Norway could shock a lot of people with the team they have. They could go a very long way."
- Haaland's international record now reads 57 goals in 51 appearances for Norway — a goals-per-game ratio that exceeds Gerd Müller and Sandor Kocsis, third-best among all players with 50+ international goals behind only pre-WWI England's Vivian Woodward and Denmark's Poul Nielsen.
- The brace came roughly an hour after Kylian Mbappe scored twice in France's 3-1 win over Senegal to become Les Bleus' all-time leading scorer, a performance the article frames as the gauntlet Haaland then picked up.
- Norway manager Stale Solbakken said of his striker: "You can see he lived up to the occasion — it wasn't too big for him," crediting a strong final training session for his confidence.
- Ashley Williams observed on BBC One that Haaland showed more pressing and leadership for Norway than he sometimes does for Manchester City, calling it "an all-round good performance" beyond his finishing.
- Haaland narrowly missed what would have been the 55th hat-trick in World Cup history, with Iraq keeper Jalal Hassan blocking his late pounce and a looping header in stoppage time bundled over the line as an Aymen Hussein own goal.
Why it matters: Haaland's debut brace gives a Norway side that hadn't scored at a World Cup in 28 years a statement opening result and a talisman whose 57-in-51 international scoring rate already tops Gerd Müller and Sandor Kocsis. Arnold's verdict — that Norway "could shock a lot of people" and "go a very long way" — frames them as potential dark horses built around a striker delivering from day one.
