First World Cup since ’98
©IMAGO
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Norway’s 4-1 win over Italy on Sunday night was that it wasn’t surprising at all. Despite the long and illustrious history of “Gli Azzurri”, Gennaro Gattuso’s side went into the match at the San Siro as slight underdogs and even though the home side opened the scoring just 11 minutes into the match, Italy’s faults and Norway’s many strengths eventually came to the fore as the Scandinavian visitors ultimately turned the game in their favour by scoring four goals in the second half. To no great surprise, Erling Haaland was crucial in that success with two goals in less than a minute to turn the match on its head, as Norway confirmed top spot in their qualifying group and a spot at their first World Cup since 1998.
The brace against Italy now means that Haaland’s goalscoring record with his national team stands at a mind-blowing 55 goals in 48 games across all competitions. In this qualifying campaign alone, the Manchester City talent has bagged no less than 16 goals and two assists in just eight games, as Norway have strolled to the top of their qualifying group without dropping a single point and a goal difference of +32. However, things weren’t always so easy for Norway when it came to qualifying for major tournaments and when we take a look back through the national team’s results before and after Haaland came to prominence, we can quickly see how much of an impact their star No.9 has made and how much the nation’s success has become tied to his ability to stick the ball in the back of the net.
For example, when we take a look at Norway’s goalscoring record since Haaland made his debut against Malta in 2019, we can see a clear increase in success in front of goal. While the national team’s goals-per-game average in competitive matches more or less stayed the same for Haaland’s first three years with Norway and even hit a notably low in 2022 at just 1.17 goals per game, that figure has since increased with each passing year at an impressive rate. As we can see, in 2025 Norway have averaged a remarkable 4.63 goals per game and that is in no small part due to the towering striker. But it’s also worth noting that last year’s average of 2.5 goals per game was also the national team’s second best return in the last 15 years. According to Transfermarkt records, Norway have averaged 1.88 goals per game since Haaland made his debut for the national team, which is a 24% increase on their goals-per-game average in the seven years prior to that.
This, unsurprisingly, has led to Norway then picking up more points due to Haaland’s proficiency in front of goal. As we can see in the table above, Norway’s perfect record of 3.0 points per game in 2025 stands far and above any of the previous years in which Haaland has played for the national team. But, much like the goal-scoring record, 2024’s average of 2.17 points per game also stands out as the third best for the national team in 15 years. Since his debut, Haaland has only lost three European qualifiers, three Nations League games and just one World Cup qualifier out of a total of 38 competitive games. As such, Norway’s points per game average in the seven years before Haaland made his debut and in the same years since has risen by an incredible 68% from 1.30 to 2.19 in competitive matches. And, unequivocally, explains why the towering striker will now be leading the line for Ståle Solbakken’s side when they compete at the 2026 World Cup next year.