The night Bellingham silenced Haaland: England 2-1 Norway after extra time

The most anticipated quarterfinal had a script announced beforehand: Haaland on one side, Kane on the other, the two most lethal center-forwards of the generation face to face in Miami. Football, as always, ignored the script. It was a midfielder who decided — and he did it twice.

Jude Bellingham equalized in first-half stoppage time and scored the winner three minutes into extra time, pouncing on a rebound goalkeeper Nyland let slip. Norway 1, England 2, and England are into the fourth World Cup semifinal in their history.

For Norway, the end of a historic campaign — the best of all time for the country at a World Cup — with a detail no one saw coming: Erling Haaland was kept off the scoresheet and saw his run of 14 straight national-team games with a goal end here.

A game Norway briefly led — through VAR

Norway were no bystanders. At 36 minutes, Andreas Schjelderup received in the box and opened the scoring, silencing the English section of Hard Rock Stadium. The lead lasted until first-half stoppage time, when Bellingham appeared to equalize at 45+2.

At 56, the stadium held its breath: Torbjørn Heggem finished off a corner and Norway looked to be in front again. VAR, however, spotted a push by Haaland in the area during the play, and the goal was ruled out. That was the moment the match changed direction.

In regulation, nothing more. In extra time, three minutes were enough: Morgan Rogers shot from distance, Nyland parried into the middle of the box, and Bellingham, the smartest player on the pitch, got there first. 2-1, the goal that meant qualification.

The first World Cup meeting — and a 33-year debt

Incredibly, England and Norway had never played each other in a World Cup finals stage. Their head-to-head, though, is full of English scars: in 1981, in Oslo, Norway won 2-1 in a qualifier, immortalized by the Norwegian commentator's manic on-air taunt of 'Maggie Thatcher'. And in the 1994 qualifying campaign, the Norwegians finished ahead and helped keep England out of the US World Cup.

Thirty-three years later, also on American soil, England collected the debt — the first time the two sides met with a semifinal place on the line.

England at World Cups

Norway at World Cups

Norway returned to a World Cup after 28 years away — they hadn't played a finals stage since 1998 — and produced by far the best campaign in their history. On the road to the quarterfinals, they eliminated no less than Brazil in the round of 16 and the Ivory Coast in the round of 32. The generation of Haaland, Ødegaard and Schjelderup leaves the tournament with the feeling that this was only the beginning.

England's standouts

Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, 23). Two goals in a World Cup quarterfinal, one of them in extra time. The equalizer in first-half stoppage time changed the psychology of the match; the second, opportunistic, sealed qualification. With six goals, Bellingham has matched Harry Kane as England's top scorer at this World Cup — and looks more and more like the natural heir to the captain's armband and the leading role.

Morgan Rogers. Entered the conversation for the decisive goal: it was his long-range shot that Nyland couldn't hold. In a team full of stars, the lowest-profile player produced the play worth the semifinal.

Norway's standouts

Andreas Schjelderup. The goal at 36 minutes capped a fine World Cup for one of the most interesting young players in Nordic football. While all the spotlight was on Haaland, it was Schjelderup who found the net in a World Cup quarterfinal.

Erling Haaland (Manchester City, 25). The night the machine failed. Kept off the scoresheet, he saw a run of 14 straight national-team games with a goal end — and committed the push that had Norway's second goal ruled out by VAR. He leaves the World Cup as the symbol of a generation that put Norway back on the football map, but with the bitter feeling that the game of his life slipped away by inches.

Match facts

• 36' — Andreas Schjelderup (NOR)
• 45+2' — Jude Bellingham (ENG)
• 56' — Heggem (NOR) goal ruled out by VAR: Haaland push in the play
• 93' — Jude Bellingham (ENG), on the rebound from Nyland after a Rogers shot
• Referee: Clément Turpin (France)

Next opponent: a reissue of 1986

In the semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta, England meet Argentina — and it's impossible not to look back. It was against the Argentines, in 1986, that England lived the most famous elimination in their history: the Hand of God and Maradona's Goal of the Century in the Mexico quarterfinal. Forty years later, English and Argentines meet again in a World Cup knockout — now with a place in the final on the line.