Erling Haaland saved Norway’s hopes of qualifying for a primary World Cup since 1998 alive with one other aim to assist his crew beat Estonia 1-0 on Monday.
Haaland took his tally to 42 objectives in 43 matches for his nation with a 62nd-minute end, and albeit not his greatest strike for Norway, it might be one in all his most vital.
Following a lightning counter-attack, the Manchester Metropolis ahead noticed his preliminary effort blocked by Maksim Paskotsi, with the ball looping over Karl Hein and onto the crossbar.
However Haaland was the quickest to react to the free ball, tucking house on the road for his fourth aim in as many video games throughout Norway’s qualifying marketing campaign.
Stale Solbakken’s facet now have 12 factors from their first 4 video games in Group I, six away from second-placed Israel and 9 forward of Italy, who beat Moldova on Monday.
— Fotballandslaget (@nff_landslag) June 9, 2025
In the meantime, on the Opus Enviornment, 4 objectives in 13 second-half minutes from Croatia noticed them romp to a 5-1 victory over Czechia to additionally preserve their excellent begin to qualifying.
Andrej Kramaric headed Croatia right into a Forty first-minute lead earlier than Tomas Soucek restored parity simply earlier than the hour with a towering header on the again publish.
However Croatia captain Luka Modric put his crew again in entrance 4 minutes later from the penalty spot after Ante Budimir had been fouled contained in the field by Tomas Holes.
From then, Zlatko Dalic’s facet turned on the model as Ivan Perisic propelled Croatia additional forward earlier than Holes gave away one other spot-kick, this time for a handball.
Budimir dispatched the penalty earlier than Kramaric concluded the scoring with a cool end previous Matej Kovar after gathering Modric’s intelligent move into the realm.
Knowledge Debrief: Haaland main Norway to glory
Norway have now scored of their final 4 video games within the World Cup qualifiers, their longest run of video games with a aim within the competitors since a run of six video games again in 2021.
And a part of their scoring success has been right down to the imperious type of Haaland, who ended the competition towards Estonia with team-high totals for photographs (seven), touches within the opposition field (9) and aerial duels received (six).
Croatia’s second-half flurry was in stark distinction to their show within the first 45 minutes. They completed the primary half with an anticipated objectives (xG) complete of 1.1, however concluded the match with a tally of three.6 from their 18 makes an attempt.