Norway Advance to Last 16 After Dramatic Win Over Côte d'Ivoire

Decision vindicated. The Norway coach, Ståle Solbakken, had taken a major gamble in resting almost his entire side in the final group game against France, drawing stiff criticism, not least from those who had paid hundreds of dollars to witness a showdown between Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. As Solbakken said, the decision would stand or fall on the result of this game.

Norway are in the last 16, players and fans celebrating with a communal Viking row led by Martin ­Ødegaard, and therefore his policy can be considered justified.

It was, though, a mightily close-run thing. Having taken a first-half lead through Antonio Nusa, Norway had seemed to be in control, Côte d’Ivoire’s possession sterile. But then Amad Diallo produced one of the great substitute interventions, making a remarkable clearance to keep out a Torbjørn Heggem volley before scoring a stunning equaliser. But with four minutes remaining, Haaland bundled in the winner, his 60th goal in his 53rd appearance for his country.

“He’s the greatest goalscorer in the world,” said Solbakken. “He brings coldness to the team. He’s very underrated in terms of holding the ball up. To score five goals in the World Cup for a little country like Norway, I don’t think even he thought he could do anything like that. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone.”

Haaland may have mis-hit it, the ball bouncing off him rather than him propelling it, but none of the Norway fans packed behind that goal cared as they progressed to a last-16 tie at New York New Jersey Stadium against Brazil. That’s Brazil against the only international team they played against that they’ve never beaten, and Gabriel Magalhães against Haaland.

For both these sides this was rare territory; Côte d’Ivoire had never previously made it through the group at a World Cup, while Norway had played only two knockout games: in 1938 when there was no group stage, and in 1998. On both occasions, they lost to Italy. Making his changes was Solbakken’s attempt to break that duck. The Bodø/Glimt midfielder Patrick Berg was the only player to start both Norway’s last two matches – and it was he who teed up Haaland. “Every man from 100 years to two years old is rowing now,” said Solbakken.

This was Norway playing a game with which they are unfamiliar. This generation has been so free-scoring that they have tended to blow opponents away. Sitting in, defending, enduring and surviving has not been their style. But they did it and it worked; although a more penetrative side than Côte d’Ivoire might have made more of their possession.

As against Germany, when they ended up losing 2-1 after taking the lead, Côte d’Ivoire started impressively, although here they dominated possession rather than looking to play on the counter. Again their threat came down the flanks, Nicolas Pépé, who is now at Villarreal, showing a directness and verve that he very rarely had in his days at Arsenal.

Chances, though, came irregularly, which is the problem Côte d’Ivoire have repeatedly come up against since they won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on home soil (in 2024). In that tournament, they lost two of their group games, including a 4-0 reverse against Equatorial Guinea, sacked their manager to bring in the present head coach, Emerse Faé, but somehow still went on to glory. Once the inexplicable magic that inspired Les Revenants, as that side became known, had worn off, though, they have suffered from a lack of precision and cutting edge. Their 3-2 defeat by Egypt in the Cup of Nations quarter-final in January was typical; lots of possession, lots of opportunities, and not much in the way of actual goal threat.

So it was again. The opening goal, when it came six minutes before the break, was from a Norwegian wide forward. Ødegaard slipped the ball wide for Nusa, who stepped inside Pépé, and bent a precise finish around Yahia Fofana. Norway seemed broadly untroubled, but then enter Diallo. With 16 minutes remaining, he picked the ball up on the right, played a sharp one-two with Pépé that took three Norwegians out of the game, swayed past a fourth, then bounced a finish past Ørjan Nyland. “We knew he would give us a lot when he came in and that’s what happened,” said Faé, dismissing suggestions that he should have started the Manchester United forward.

The game suddenly was alive again. The thought was that the spirit of Les Revenants was back, a team that didn’t know when it was finished. The nature of Diallo’s block from Heggem, denying a certain goal, and the brilliant nature of his own strike might have caused Norwegian heads to drop, for a sense to descend that it was not their day. But Berg and Haaland dragged the game back and, in stoppage time, Nyland made a superb flailing save to keep out a Diallo free-kick.

The Norwegian longboat rows on.