Norway Is So Much More Than Just Erling Haaland

As UEFA qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup come to a close this week, the quality of the automatically qualified teams is high. So far, England and France, two perennial tournament favorites, have won their groups handily—the former allowed zero goals in eight matches, and the latter's only blemish on its record was a draw against Iceland in October—and Portugal and Croatia, two teams with plenty of recent international success, have also secured their spots without need for a playoff triumph. Elsewhere, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands should seal up qualification in their final group matches later this week. This is all to be expected; you could do worse than those seven sides when trying to figure out who the cream of the European crop is and has been for some time.

However, among all of those traditional titans of the continent, there is a polar bear encroaching on the elites' playground. Thanks to a 4-1 comeback thrashing of Italy on Sunday, Norway has now stomped its way into the 2026 World Cup, its first time getting back to the big show since 1998. Along the way, the Scandinavians racked up a perfect record of dominance: eight matches, eight wins, and a plus-32 goal difference (the highest in the qualifiers, and tied for the highest per-match goal difference ever in European qualifying). Norway can now book their flights to North America with the knowledge that they are one of the scariest teams in the competition.

Admittedly, the Norwegians' group never looked particularly challenging, and at minimum a playoff qualification seemed a certainty. Norway is easily better than Israel (combined scoreline of their two wins: 9-2), Estonia (5-1), and Moldova (a hilarious 16-1). But Italy, oh Italy. The Italians have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups in tragicomic fashion, but this is still Italy, a country with more soccer talent even in its lowest moments than Norway has been able to put together in its most golden of generations. How did that work out for the Italians? After Sunday's ass-kicking, the Azzurri got rocked 7-1 on aggregate across the two matches against Norway. (Italy still has a chance for redemption in the playoffs, but that didn't work out so well for them in either of the last two qualification campaigns.)

This is not to say that Italy choked, though. Norway is good. Very good, even, and not just good in the most obvious areas. Let's get this out of the way: Yes, Erling Haaland is a goalscoring freak, and he has been even more prolific for his home country than he is for Manchester City. Thanks to a brace against Italy, Haaland finishes qualifiers with 16 goals, most of anyone. Second place is a three-way tie between Marko Arnautovic, Harry Kane, and Memphis Depay with ... eight each. Haaland has been as unguardable as ever in the Norwegian kit, making him the key player for his country.

But the thing is, he's not alone—and that is what elevates Norway from a team that could beat anyone to a team that absolutely smoked everyone. Here's a fun stat: Even if you took away all 16 of Haaland's goals in qualifying, Norway would still have won the group and qualified automatically, and its 21 goals from other sources would have been just behind England's 22 in the same number of matches. Maybe even less believable is that Norway would have only dropped two points without Haaland's goals. Of course, it's not that simple; having Haaland in prime goalscoring form bends defenses into his gravity, and his ability to blow open matches makes for easier garbage time goals for his teammates; Wolverhampton's Jorgen Strand Larsen scored in the 92nd minute on Sunday against a completely demoralized Italian side, a state of dejection Haaland had condemned them to with his aforementioned brace. (Larsen's cutback on Gianluca Mancini was pretty sweet, though.)

It's exactly because of all the top-class players around Haaland that Norway's qualifying campaign was little more than a walk in the park. The squad's other superstar, Arsenal's Martin Odegaard, has been dealing with some injuries and didn't play on Sunday, but he's been as wonderful as ever, notching seven assists and a goal in the five qualifiers he's played in this season. Fulham's Sander Berge has been a consistent rock in the midfield, Manchester City's Oscar Bobb has all of the potential in the world and could improve massively by next summer's tournament, and Alexander Sorloth, who plies his trade at Atlético Madrid, is a man-mountain who complements Haaland well. In addition, Antonio Nusa might have been the best non-Haaland player of all of qualifying, so it was fitting that the Leipzig attacker scored the opening goal for Norway in the 63rd minute with a near-post ripper.

If Norway has weaknesses, it's in defense, and credit to Italy for exploiting that early on Sunday before the floodgates opened in the other direction. The Italians were the better side in the first half, attacking from outside in against Norway's fullback duo of David Moller Wolfe and Julian Ryerson. Italy's opener was created by a Ryerson error, as he misplayed a cross-field lob directly into the path of Federico Dimarco, and after a nifty bit of short passing in the box, Pio Esposito scored past a frustrated Orjan Nyland:

In a way, though, those first half struggles only made Norway's eventual demolition all the more impressive. This side is so good and well-drilled by manager Stale Solbakken that going down a goal seemed to barely phase them. Norway had already topped the group before Sunday in every way but officially—even if Italy had won and leveled the point total at 21, Norway had an overwhelming advantage in the goal-difference tiebreaker—and yet it was clear that the players wanted to finish a perfect campaign. And so, Norway fought back, first slowly and with some first-half hesitation, and then with shock and awe against Italians who frankly had no idea what was happening to them in the second half.

Now Norway can relax knowing that it has achieved something that had eluded it for six qualification campaigns in a row. The World Cup awaits, and Norway will likely be a trendy dark-horse pick. Never mind that many of the dark-horse picks in recent tournaments have gone on to disappoint—who can forget Denmark (oops) and Canada (oops a second time) at the 2022 World Cup?—because this Norway side might just be good enough to be considered a contender with no labels. The defensive issues—to the extent that they exist after giving up just five goals in eight matches of qualifying—might be a worry heading into the tournament, but there's so much attacking and midfield talent here, especially factoring in a fully fit Odegaard, that Norway matches will at the very least be appointment viewing. And with Haaland somehow getting better and better, Norway will have claim to one of the best five or so players in the entire tournament leading its attack. That's usually a recipe for a deep run on its own, but this Norway side is too good in too many areas to reduce this to The Erling Haaland Show. After years in the wilderness, the country will be back on the world stage, and it's bringing a fully loaded arsenal of talented players who will look to cement this as Norway's best team of all time.