* Ahead of their much anticipated FIFA World Cup™ 2026 quarterfinal clash tomorrow
* It’s tough to stop Haaland, because he can be anonymous in matches; he doesn’t touch the ball a lot but you know that he’s explosive
Maravi Express
While predicting that England will be favourites against Norway in tomorrow’s FIFA World Cup™ 2026 quarterfinal, former England full-back Gary Neville urged caution over Erling Haaland’s potential impact despite the euphoria after the The Three Lions’ victory over Mexico in the last 16.
Advertisement
England progressed to the quarter-finals thanks to a historic 3-2 win at Mexico’s Azteca stadium on Monday morning through a double from Jude Bellingham and a spot-kick from Harry Kane, despite being down to 10 men.
While Norway produced history of their own in a win over five-time champions Brazil in which Erling Haaland scored two to help his nation secure a first World Cup quarter-final.
That took him to seven goals at the World Cup so far, joint top of the goalscoring charts with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
Neville says that despite a momentous win for Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions, there are areas that need to be improved, with Haaland on the horizon.
“It’s tough to stop Haaland, because he can be anonymous in matches; he doesn’t touch the ball a lot but you know that he’s explosive,” Neville told Sky Sports News.
“He was devastating against Brazil; those two goals were absolutely brilliant — classic Haaland. The first one, just moving in front of Gabriel with a brilliant header, and the second one is just pure, just touch and a powerful hit that you know beats one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Haaland shrugged off Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhaes to score Norway’s opener
“Difficult to stop him for 90 minutes, or if it’s extra-time as well, 120 minutes, but we should be favourites. I don’t think that’s us getting carried away. We should be favourites to beat Norway but it’s going to be tough.
“It’s going to be really tough on Saturday, and it would have been tough, obviously, playing Brazil. You’re in a World Cup quarter-final.
“They’ve got some good players. The manager was really brave for Norway at half-time, changing the two wide players; I thought it had a big impact on the game.
“Norway have got some firepower. They’ve got a front four — whoever they play up there but Haaland, obviously right at the point of it — that are dangerous and England are going to have to be on the guard, so more like we saw in the first half last night, and obviously towards the end, where England were really compact, aggressive, quite determined.
“Just get rid of those one or two little bugs we had, obviously. They went a little bit deep for the Raul Jimenez header, where Jordan Pickford made a great save.
“You can’t drop back onto your goalkeeper with Haaland. And then set-pieces, you’ve just got to make sure you’re getting that first contact.
“It’s a classic sort of thing. If you concede from set-pieces, it will undermine your performances.
“If we can get rid of those one or two little bugs that we had last night in that first half, we were near on perfect defensively.
“A brilliant game to look forward to in Miami on Saturday but it’s going to be tough. England should just edge it but it’s dangerous.”—Reporting by SkySports News; editing by Maravi Express
Knockout stages results
Round of 32
* South Africa 0-1 Canada
* Jordan 1-3 Argentina
* Brazil 2-1 Japan
* Germany 1(3)-1(4) Paraguay
* Netherlands 1(2)-1(3) Morocco
* Côte d’Ivoire 1-2 Norway
* France 3-0 Sweden
* Mexico 2-0 Ecuador
* England 1-2 DR Congo
* Belgium 3-2 Senegal
* USA 2-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina
* Spain 3-0 Austria
* Portugal 2-1 Croatia
* Switzerland 2-0 Algeria
* Australia 1(2)-1(4) Egypt
* Argentina 3-2 Cape Verde
* Colombia 1-0 Ghana
Round of 16
* Canada 0-3 Morocco
* Paraguay 0-1 France
* Brazil 1-2 Norway
* Mexico 2-3 England
* Portugal 0-1 Spain
* USA 1-4 Belgium
* Argentina 3-2 Egypt
* Switzerland 0(4)-0(3) Colombia
Quarterfinals
* Morocco 0-2 France
Today, July 10
* Belgium v Spain (21h00)
* Norway v England (23h00)
* Argentina v Switzerland (03h00)
Semifinals
Tuesday, July 14
France v Belgium/Spain
Wednesday, July 15
* Norway/England v Argentina/Switzerland
Advertisement