Brazil vs. Norway: "The battle of the World Cup" is set to see Gabriel Magalhaes, Erling Haaland go head-to-head

Ahead of the last-16 clash between Brazil and Norway at the 2026 World Cup, Sports Mole's Site Coordinator Ben Knapton and Senior Reporter Oliver Thomas discuss the battle between Gabriel Magalhaes and Erling Haaland.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: 'The battle of the World Cup'

Brazil vs. Norway World Cup 2026 Match Preview

Get the popcorn out: this is going to be the battle of the World Cup. It's one that Gabriel and Haaland both relish. They have their little needle on the pitch.

Haaland throwing the ball at Gabriel's head, the Gabriel headbutt from last season, and with my biggest Arsenal hat on, I've got no idea how Gabriel escaped a red card for that.

If Haaland goes down, Gabriel gets sent off, but it shouldn't take Haaland feigning injury for the referee to make the right decision. Looking at how this battle might go: I think it's fair to say Gabriel has had the edge overall in recent battles.

It helps if Haaland backs into Gabriel and Gabriel can win those headers and physical duels. That's where Gabriel thrives. But if Odegaard or whoever it is can play those balls down the channel for Haaland and it's a foot race, Gabriel is never going to win that. If it comes down to pace, Haaland has Gabriel on toast.

Haaland can also try to rile Gabriel and get under his skin: Gabriel is one of the more volatile players in the Arsenal team, as we saw with that headbutt last season.

Haaland has proven quite good at getting under his skin in the past couple of years. During his first couple of seasons at Arsenal, discipline was a bit of an issue for Gabriel and it's an element of his game where there's still a little bit in him sometimes.

But it won't just be Gabriel versus Haaland: there's also the question of whether Haaland might try to isolate Marquinhos more than Gabriel. They've also got the very physical Sorloth up top, so could Sorloth face Gabriel instead? There's no guarantee it will be Gabriel versus Haaland.

Odegaard knows Gabriel so well, and they've been playing together since January 2021, five and a half years to build up that chemistry and know each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Odegaard has been at his creative best at the World Cup, setting up one goal in each of his three appearances so far.

If he can provide the service to Haaland, Haaland might have the edge. If Gabriel can anticipate what Odegaard is going to do, he might have the edge. Over the course of 90 minutes, Gabriel, for me, is the winner.

But it just takes one moment for Haaland to get the better of him and find the back of the net.

From a Haaland perspective, he's going to have more space to run in behind for Norway than he does for Man City when teams are defending deeper.

Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter: "Haaland has had his successes too"

They've got a much stronger chance if that's the case. Gabriel has won the battles with Haaland at club level before, but Haaland has had his successes too. Maybe he'll try to target Marquinhos a bit more.

Sorloth is playing a bit more on the right side of a front three rather than as an out-and-out strike partner for Haaland through the middle.

Whether he can actually lure Gabriel away from that battle and give Haaland the chance to go head-to-head with Marquinhos remains to be seen. Either way, Haaland will back himself against anyone.

Haaland may even lose the physical battle with Brazil's centre-backs, but he could still find a way to score in different scenarios. It will be interesting to see if Norway can stretch Brazil's defence and get Haaland running in behind.

If you've got a foot race between Haaland and Gabriel and Marquinhos, you're backing Haaland with his pace and power.

Haaland can be frightening at times with his runs with the ball at speed towards goal. Brazil just need to be well-organised and not give Haaland or any Norway attacker any space.

Reading Haaland's movement and limiting his penalty box touches will be key, because Haaland only needs one or two chances to decide a game.

His record on the international stage is just ridiculous. He scored in each of his last 13 international games, 25 goals in that run... 60 goals in total in just 53 international games, averaging a goal every 72 minutes.

He's the fastest player to ever reach 60 international goals. In comparison, Mbappe reached 60 goals in 100 caps, so Haaland has done it in 47 fewer games.

There's an argument that Norway have played a lot of weaker opposition in some of those games, and he scored five hat-tricks for Norway, a lot of those against weaker sides, and got a five-goal haul against Moldova.

Each of his first 55 goals were not scored at a major tournament. The most important have been these five goals he's scored at this World Cup in three games.

The biggest of all was that tap-in late on to seal the win against Ivory Coast. Haaland is undoubtedly crucial for this Norway side.

If he's at his clinical best, Norway have a chance against most teams. I think Norway will probably be presented with some opportunities and I'm not convinced that Brazil can keep them quiet for the entire 90 minutes.

Can Norway pull off an upset? I personally wouldn't rule it out. I think there's a chance. It's worth giving the broader historical context here.

It's very easy to forget that Norway have already broken new ground at this World Cup. They'd never won more than one game at a World Cup before this tournament.

They'd never made it past the first knockout round. This is only their fourth ever World Cup.

If they go and beat Brazil, which is entirely possible, I don't think anyone would be hugely surprised based on what we've seen at the tournament so far. It would go down as their greatest ever result.