Jude Bellingham scored twice to send England into a World Cup semifinal with a deeply controversial win over Norway.
England dominated possession in the first quarter of the game but struggled to create clear chances with Thomas Tuchel particularly animated during the hydration break.
The response was not what England’s coach desired: first Erling Haaland had a header saved before Andreas Schjelderup fired in off the far post from the left side of the box for an extraordinary opening goal.
It was then that a deeply controversial equaliser followed. Goalkeeper Orjan Nyland hit a goal kick upfield that Norway believed struck the overhead sky camera wire and dropped at the foot of Elliot Anderson. He played it to Anthony Gordon, who in turn found Jude Bellingham to drive into the box and score.
FIFA said its ball chip technology showed no contact with the wire or camera.
Norway were furious with the decision and were angered further after the break when Torbjorn Heggem’s goal was disallowed on review after an initial push by Erling Haaland at a corner.
It was Norway who controlled the second half, though Bukayo Saka’s cross had to be cleared from under the crossbar and Bellingham headed wide in stoppage time.
Harry Kane had a header saved at the start of extra time but Nyland badly spilt a Morgan Rogers shot and Bellingham pounced to score from the rebound.
There was more drama to come with England awarded a penalty after Djed Spence went over in the box only for referee Clement Turpin to overturn the decision on review.
Norway took off Haaland at half-time of extra time and England held out.
England will play Argentina or Switzerland in Atlanta on Wednesday. The winners of that game will play either France or Spain, who play on Tuesday, in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on July 19.
The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jack Lang, Thom Harris, Dan Sheldon and refereeing expert Graham Scott break down the key talking points.
Will England think it’s coming home?
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. But England are in the World Cup semi-finals for only the fourth time after needing extra time to beat Norway 2-1 in a steaming hot Miami.
This was perhaps the most disjointed of all of England’s games at this World Cup, after a strong start gave way to a confused second half. Thomas Tuchel withdrew Declan Rice at half-time and it took England far too long to recover their structure. Heggem even had a goal to put Norway 2-1 up overturned by VAR.
But England clung on and ultimately it was Jude Bellingham — who else — who won them the game. He scored late in the first half of normal time to make it 1-1, and then scored the winner early on in extra time. Even by his standards it was a performance of remarkable decisiveness. He went off with 10 minutes of extra time left for Dan Burn, who as in Mexico spent the final minutes heading the ball away.
England will fly to Atlanta for Wednesday’s semi-final with huge questions, about the fitness of Rice, the tiredness of Bellingham and Kane, and how they managed to lose control for so much of this game.
But their spirit got them through another difficult match, harder in its own way than Mexico. Now they are one game from the biggest match of all.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Is Bellingham inevitable at this World Cup?
Before the World Cup began, the consensus in the astrophysics community was that Jupiter, of all of the entities in our solar system, had the most gravity. Centuries of scientific study have unravelled over the last four weeks, however, because it turns out there was a miscalculation. There is, in fact, something with far stronger gravitational pull than all of the planets combined.
“Mars Rover, come in. This is Kennedy Space Centre. Please change course. You risk being sucked into the orbit of… I don’t know how to say this. It’s… it’s Jude Bellingham.”
Act one: added time at the end of the first half. England had started well, then begun to drift after the drinks break. Schjelderup’s goal had appeared to knock the wind out of them. Then Bellingham did what Bellingham does, which is to say that he just happened, unstoppably. His equalising goal was a miniature marvel, a seminar in both movement and precision; scoring looked vanishingly unlikely, then possible, then the only thing that was ever going to happen.
Jude Bellingham scores the opening goal (Elsa/Getty Images)
Much later in the piece — gone midnight back in England — a familiar energy was taking hold of the game. England were leggy, imprecise, struggling. Getting to extra time at all was a win. Penalties looked the most likely route to victory.
Then he did it again. Morgan Rogers’ strike from range befuddled Nyland, who fumbled. Bellingham looked second favourite to reach the loose ball but quantum leaped his way there, slamming home his sixth goal of this tournament.
Bellingham scores the second (Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
It dragged his nation into a World Cup semi-final — and ever further into the starry swirl of the Judeverse.
Jack Lang
What happened to Haaland?
Haaland had the fewest touches of anyone on the pitch, his goalkeeper Nyland had over double. But this is nothing new for the 25-year-old, a player who often lingers on the periphery of games before making his decisive move.
To withdraw Haaland halfway through extra time was a brave decision from head coach Stale Solbakken. There were suggestions of a slight injury, receiving a massage on the touchline shortly after coming off, but Norway undoubtedly lost a little bit of threat without his intimidating presence in the middle.
He mustered two shots on goal, failing to generate enough power on a header, before flicking a second headed effort wide from a second-half corner. He dropped deep where he could, but was generally crowded out in the centre and wasn’t given much to chase in behind.
Ultimately, the risk didn’t pay off — Haaland’s replacement Jorgen Strand Larsen took just four touches and found himself similarly isolated at the top of the team in his 15 minutes on the pitch. Having scored over half of their goals on their way to a maiden World Cup quarter-final, this was a sad way for a historic tournament to end.
Thom Harris
Why was England’s goal controversial?
Norway felt that the Skycam attached to cables that hover above the pitch may have played an unwitting part in Bellingham’s opening goal just before half-time.
Norway believed the ball had struck one of the cables that support the camera when it was cleared upfield. A few passes later, Bellingham scored.
FIFA said that according to its ball-chip data it did not strike the wire. Video images appeared to show the ball changing trajectory.
For this tournament a 500Hz inertial measurement unit (IMU) motion sensor has been embedded to track data and enhance the VAR system.
The ‘Connected Ball Technology’ (CBT), as Adidas calls it, delivers data 500 times a second which means that the sensor helps make the precise moment a ball was touched clear. Its primary purpose is to help with offside calls but it can also detect whether a player has touched the ball.
Orjan Nyland complains about the ball appearing to touch the wire
Norway coach Solbakken and goalkeeper Nyland were both certain the ball had struck the wire, pointing up at the sky after the goal. Solbakken also pressed his case to the officials as England celebrated and again at halftime.
Before England’s goal in minute 45+2 against Norway, the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the ‘heartbeat of the ball’ when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball. pic.twitter.com/gYf9ukfveT
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) July 11, 2026
According to The Athletic’s refereeing expert Graham Scott, you can, strictly speaking, make a case for outside interference, which means there should be a dropped ball. But in practice there has to be some evidence of impact.
“You would allow play to continue if the ball hit a paper cup or small piece of debris on the pitch if it made no difference to the play,” he says. “It’s hard to be sure here — and FIFA said its ball chip technology did not show any touch — but in any event I think it’s unlikely the VAR would even consider checking a camera angle up in the gods when reviewing the attacking phase
“He would have been focusing on the actions of the players in the build-up, and there was no obvious reason to dig so deep, especially given the pressure on all video officials not to be too forensic, nor to delay the game in an apparent quest to find something wrong with what appears to be a perfectly valid goal.”
At the end of the game, Erling Haaland’s father Alfie, a former player himself, posted on social media: “Well done Bellingham and referee.”
Dan Sheldon and refereeing expert Graham Scott
What else annoyed Norway?
Haaland will have thought little of his push to create space before his side’s corner was delivered, as he would have been getting away with similar contact in the Premier League for the past few seasons.
But FIFA’s tougher stance on upper body fouls at set pieces, and the change in the law that allows attackers to be penalised even if their offence is before the ball is in play, cost Haaland’s side a goal.
It is a clear, two-handed push by the striker on Anderson, who can hardly be blamed for making the most of the contact.
Haaland then challenged for the ball, which would have been part of the VAR check. Had the incident occurred nowhere near the action, it may have been allowed to pass.
Despite one of their players committing an offence, Norway were allowed to retake the corner because the incident occurred before the ball had been put into play. That feels generous – if football is going to stamp out grappling and wrestling at corners, then stronger deterrents may be necessary.
Graham Scott
Why was Rice taken off at half time?
The presence of Declan Rice in the starting line-up was a major boost for England. Or at least it looked like one. Then the game kicked off. Rice, who had been struggling with a sickness bug in the run-up to this match, looked out of sorts, his runs less bounding than normal, his influence diminished. Even his dead-ball delivery, usually such a weapon for club and country, was off.
Rice deserves credit for being available at all, but it was no great surprise to see him hooked at half time. The same was true of Noni Madueke, who put in a good shift on the right flank but who also — not for the first time this World Cup — produced very little when the ball came his way.
Bukayo Saka provided a bit more cutting edge on the wing. In midfield, Eberechi Eze came on for Rice, his Arsenal colleague, and looked more energetic. He did not, though, exert anything like the level of control that Rice offers when he is fit. As a result, the second half began to drift for England, with Norway’s Patrick Berg and Sander Berge dominating the midfield battle.
Jack Lang
Did Schjelderup mean his goal?
It was one of the more confusing goals of the World Cup. As Schjelderup shifted the ball onto his weaker side, all eyes glanced towards Haaland at the back post, anticipating the floated, stood-up cross.
Instead, it flew from Schjelderup’s left boot, cannoned in off the back post, and bounced around the goal frame like a ping-pong ball, leaving everyone watching at home asking the same question: “has that actually gone in?”
Andreas Schjelderup lets the ball fly (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
It goes over Jordan Pickford (Getty Images)
And rebounds in off the post (Getty Images)
The move came about as Schjelderup looked to take on Ezri Konsa out wide. That was a much-discussed match-up before the game, with the Aston Villa defender playing out of position, but he did the right thing in showing the winger down the outside. There were questions asked of Jordan Pickford at half-time, as he seemed to pull his hand away at the vital moment, but the element of surprise surely played a part here, on top of the speed and movement of the ball as it careered towards his back post.
Given the movement of his towering centre-forward in the middle, you have to think he was shaping up a cross. Even so, to connect so sweetly with the ball on your weaker foot, in your country’s first ever World Cup quarter-final — Schjelderup will not allow anyone to take that away.
Thom Harris
Should Norway’s opener have been disallowed?
Kane’s half-hearted appeal for a free kick shortly before Norway opened the scoring was surely more out of hope than expectation.
Some VARs have got involved unnecessarily at this World Cup, most notably in the now infamous match between Egypt and Argentina, but not here.
The official in the VAR role for the game at Hard Rock Stadium, Jerome Brisard, was the same who controversially disallowed Egypt’s goal against Argentina but he was unmoved by Kane’s claim.
Any contact was minimal and well below the threshold being applied on the field by French referee Clement Turpin, too.
Graham Scott
