Erling Haaland wrapped up a historic qualifying marketing campaign with Norway within the UEFA 2026 World Cup cycle, serving to the Scandinavian facet return to the event after 28 years. Together with that achievement, the Norwegian striker has reached an unimaginable goalscoring milestone that neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo ever managed.
On Sunday, Norway accomplished its qualifying run with a commanding 4-1 win over Italy at San Siro. Italy wanted a nine-goal victory to steal first place and got here out sturdy, however with objectives from Antonio Nusa, a Haaland brace, and Jørgen Strand Larsen, Norway mounted a decisive response, with the Manchester Metropolis star as soon as once more making historical past.
By scoring towards Italy, Erling Haaland turned simply the second participant ever to attain in eight consecutive FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. His streak started on the highway to 2026 towards Moldova in March, and continued as he scored towards Israel, Estonia, and Italy (dwelling and away), discovering the online in each qualifier since.
In distinction, whereas Ronaldo and Messi are among the many prime scorers in World Cup qualifying historical past, neither produced a streak this lengthy. Ronaldo’s greatest run got here in the course of the highway to the 2018 World Cup, when he scored in six straight qualifiers from 2016 to 2017 towards Andorra, the Faroe Islands (twice), Latvia (twice), and Hungary. Messi’s longest got here within the lead-up to Brazil 2014, scoring in back-to-back three-match stretches.
Erling Haaland of Norway celebrates victory over Italy.
The one participant to report an extended streak is Pauleta, who scored in 9 straight qualifiers for Portugal between 2001 and 2004. Which means Haaland will enter the 2030 World Cup cycle, set for Spain, Morocco, and Portugal, with an opportunity to tie and even surpass Pauleta’s report.
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Erling Haaland’s brace leads Norway to historic 4–1 win over Italy, securing ticket to 2026 World Cup
Extra data set by Haaland
Within the UEFA 2026 qualifiers, Norway completed because the highest-scoring crew with 37 objectives whereas conceding solely 5. Of these objectives, 16 have been scored instantly by Haaland, accounting for a formidable 43 % of the whole.
By netting 16 objectives, Haaland additionally tied Robert Lewandowski’s report for essentially the most objectives in a single UEFA World Cup qualifying marketing campaign, matching the Polish star’s tally from the highway to Russia 2018. He completed simply three shy of the all-time world report set by Iranian legend Karim Bagheri, who scored 19 objectives in Asian qualifying forward of France 1998.
