England 2 – 1 Norway – Match Analysis
By Adrian Durnham
July 14 2026
Bellingham was yet again the hero as England came from behind to beat Norway 2 – 1 after extra time.
Bellingham’s brace saw him draw level with Kane as England’s joint leading scorer at this World Cup as he almost single handedly secured a semi-final spot.
England showed great resilience and mentality to battle to victory in a game where they didn’t play particularly well and one in which they could have easily lost.
It could be said that Norway had the better opportunities and the decisions go against them, but this England team never give up, and Bellingham just epitomizes that.
At 1 – 0 down, Norway had a glorious chance to make it two but a combination of greedy play and good defending by Stones and O’Reilly meant that the game was still in the balance.
There was some debate about whether their goal should have stood when Haaland threw Anderson to the ground but for me it was a foul.
England possibly should have had a penalty as well when Spence initiated the foul. It is a bit of a grey area that one but ultimately, I feel that all the correct decisions were made.
The only debatable one was whether the ball hit the camera cable or not. It looks like it did with the way the ball deviated but you certainly can’t see it with the naked eye and if the technology says no then who are we to argue.
Tuchel seemed disappointed with the performance to say the least, and I do agree that England haven’t really played well at all during the tournament. Yet we find ourselves in a semi-final so hopefully performances can improve to go along with the results as I feel we will need to improve to beat the higher calibre opposition that awaits us.
Argentina and Messi do seem a daunting task in many respects but like England they have stumbled their way to this stage of tournament. They have been very reliant on Messi, just as England have on Bellingham for the majority and Kane as well to a slightly lesser extent.
This could go either way for me and I’m not sure where my money would be if I were a betting man.
COME ON ENGLAND