Norway next match who they play is Brazil, and the meeting comes Sunday in New Jersey after a 2-1 win over Côte d'Ivoire in Texas. Erling Braut Haaland settled it four minutes from the end, turning a one-goal surge into Norway's passage to the next round.
Antonio Nusa had put Norway ahead before halftime, and Côte d'Ivoire pulled level with 15 minutes left. Then Haaland finished the move that carried Norway through, and the result sends Ståle Solbakken's team into a Brazil test that now sits at the center of its World Cup bracket path.
Haaland closes it late
The winning goal came four minutes from the end, and it mattered because Norway had already let a lead slip once. Patrick Berg was part of the move that led to the finish, and Haaland did the rest with the sort of late strike that ends debate fast.
That goal also extended his run in the tournament. He became the first man since Sándor Kocsis of Hungary in 1954 to score in each of his first three World Cup appearances, a mark that now sits across a 96-year history of the competition.
Nusa opens Norway's route
Before the late swing, Nusa gave Norway the lead before halftime. That mattered because it forced Côte d'Ivoire to chase the game for most of the second half rather than dictate it from the start.
When the equalizer arrived with a quarter of an hour to go, the match shifted from control to pressure. Norway still found the response, and the timing of Haaland's goal left Brazil with the next assignment and Norway with the cleaner side of the draw for now.
Brazil, England and Argentina path
The immediate next step is clear: Brazil on Sunday in New Jersey. The longer route is less direct, because the winner of Brazil and Norway will more than likely face England in Miami in the quarter-finals on July 11, and the forecast semi-final opponent is Argentina in Atlanta.
That route gives the match against Brazil more weight than a single knockout round usually carries. Norway has the result it needed, but the bracket now asks a sharper question: whether Haaland can keep extending a scoring streak that has already reached three World Cup appearances while Norway tries to push through to England and beyond.
