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Norway’s Erling Haaland (9) celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Ivory Coast and Norway in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tony Gutierrez\/AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n
Norway’s Martin Oedegaard (10) leads the viking row, after the end of the FIFA World Cup Round of 32 soccer match between Ivory Coast and Norway in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gareth Patterson\/AP Photo\/Gareth Patterson<\/p>\n
Norway goalkeeper Oerjan Nyland (1) reacts after Erling Haaland (9) scored his side’s second goal during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Ivory Coast and Norway in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Julio Cortez\/AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n
Norway’s Erling Haaland (9), left, scores during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Ivory Coast and Norway in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jessica Tobias\/AP Photo\/Jessica Tobias<\/p>\n
Norway’s Antonio Nusa (20) celebrates after scoring the opening goal of his team during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Ivory Coast and Norway in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tony Gutierrez\/AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Erling Haaland savored the moment after Norway won a knockout game at the World Cup for the first time, a celebration that included a horned helmet atop his head and again sitting on the field with teammates to do the Viking Row in synch with their red-clad fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unbelievable. This is history,\u201d Haaland said on the field after the game.<\/p>\n
A slight tap from Haaland’s left foot in the 86th minute was the difference as Norway beat Ivory Coast 2-1 on Tuesday, setting up another World Cup match against five-time champion Brazil \u2014 28 years after a victory that many consider the greatest ever for the Norwegians.<\/p>\n
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For now, they prefer to enjoy their latest accomplishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re going to think about now is to enjoy the win today. We\u2019re really happy and proud of ourselves,\u201d said Martin Odeegaard, the team’s captain who banged the drum to set the pace for the postgame row. \u201cHopefully we can keep dreaming and keep believing and keep performing like we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonio Nusa scored the opening goal in the first half with a curling kick for Norway, which in its fourth World Cup will next play in the round of 16 against Brazil on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a dream come true,\u201d Nusa said in translated remarks.<\/p>\n
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Norway is in its first World Cup since that 1998 appearance, when the team got to the knockout round only after scoring goals in the 83rd and 89th minutes for an incredible 2-1 comeback win over then-reigning World Cup champion Brazil in the group finale.<\/p>\n
Amad Diallo, who had prevented Norway from taking a two-goal lead earlier in the second half, evened the match for Ivory Coast with a left-footed kick in the 74th minute.<\/p>\n
Even after Haaland\u2019s go-ahead goal, his Norway-record 60th in 53 matches, Ivory Coast kept pressing and had a chance to equalize with a direct free kick by Diallo in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Orjan Nyland made a leaping stop, the last of his four saves, when he deflected the ball away as he extended his left hand across his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter their equalizer, it was easy to panic. But we got our players in the right position and managed to play our game again,\u201d Norway coach St\u00e5le Solbakken said.<\/p>\n
Haaland’s 27 touches were the fewest of any Norway player who played the full match, but he was open after three defenders converged when Patrick Berg moved into the penalty area with the ball before making a quick pass. It was a slow roll over the line after coming off the foot of Haaland, who lunged forward as if he might have to kick it again.<\/p>\n
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It was his Haaland’s fifth goal in three games at this year\u2019s tournament. That is one behind Lionel Messi, who has six for Argentina and scored three of those in two group games at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Haaland, who won the Golden Boot in the Premier League last season with 27 goals for Manchester City, has scored in 13 straight competitive international games \u2014 a total of 25 goals in that span.<\/p>\n
The youthful Elephants, ranked 31st by FIFA, had never before won twice in the same World Cup. This was the fourth World Cup appearance for the West African nation, the same as Norway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud for what we achieved,\u201d Diallo said. \u201cBut a big disappointment because we knew we have quality in the team, we have players that can make a difference anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nusa scored his first World Cup goal in the 39th minute when he took a few strides past the left corner of the penalty area and sent a right-footed kick between two defenders toward the far post.<\/p>\n
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Ivory Coast goalkeeper Yahia Fofana made a diving attempt at the ball that was just beyond his extended reach, and he was still in air when he turned his head back to see the ball curl into the net. It was Nusa\u2019s ninth international goal in 28 games for Norway.<\/p>\n
Diallo evened the score at 1-1 after a give-and-go with Nicolas Pepe, who had scored both Ivory Coast goals in its previous game and was stopped by Nyland in the 55th minute. Diallo found space for his left-footed blast.<\/p>\n
That came only about eight minutes after Torbjorn Heggen had a shot for Norway that was deflected away by Diallo, who was right next to his keeper.<\/p>\n
Nusa’s yellow card in stoppage time before the half set up a free kick by Pepe, but the ensuing header went left of the post.<\/p>\n
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See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norway’s Erling Haaland (9) celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup round of 32…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[126649,126645,150,152,151,124313,73993,126726,126646,125214,126648,23681,202,126650,196,88710,42094,942,88711,61262,119376,126644,126647],"class_list":["post-358791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-amad-diallo","tag-antonio-nusa","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-erling-haland","tag-lionel-messi","tag-martin-odeegaard","tag-nicolas-pepe","tag-norway","tag-orjan-nyland","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-patrick-berg","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-tsn-dynamo","tag-world-cup-norway-ivory-coast-score","tag-yahia-fofana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}