Norway vs. England: Three Lions have glorious chance to end decades of hurt at 2026 World Cup

Ahead of England's 2026 World Cup quarter-final against Norway, Sports Mole's Site Coordinator Ben Knapton discusses the Three Lions.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: "That is a big question that Tuchel has got to answer"

It's coming home. 

England are under so much pressure now to back it up, but the mountain that Mexico represented was such a big mountain to climb, with all the pre-game talk and Mexico's unblemished record at the World Cup so far. 

The Azteca was caveated by the fact that I don't think they'd faced any teams ranked higher than around 50 on average, so that was a big caveat on that point. 

But the psychological impact of that Mexico win is just going to be so big. It just cannot be overstated. 

If a win like that, singing Wonderwall in front of the fans, doesn't rouse a team for another game, then I honestly don't know what will. Tuchel, for me, is an amazing man manager. 

The emotion and the celebrations we saw in that game have been keeping with the theme of this World Cup so far. 

If there was Arsenal people around, the celebration police would be coming out for us. You saw it with Argentina as well after their wins against Cape Verde and Egypt. 

Every single World Cup favourite has been tested in at least one game: we saw Spain against Cape Verde, France against Paraguay, Argentina against Cape Verde and Egypt. 

The emotion of that occasion is just huge, and I wasn't alive in 1966. You can have those celebrations on the night, but you've got to pick yourself up again. 

I've got no fears that England will do that. My biggest concern is that there hasn't really been a World Cup win so far for England where you think they've really blown a team away by three or four goals. 

Croatia, there was some dodgy defending. Panama for 60 minutes was not convincing. Congo, they were scared; Mexico, they were scared; and Norway will be the biggest challenge yet. 

But they're slowly starting to build up a decent run of form, at least on paper. That's three wins in a row and they've scored two or more goals in each of them. 

They've shown they can win in different ways as well; they weren't just passing in that horseshoe shape against Mexico. 

They were counter-attacking with absolute devastation. They only had 33% of the ball, which is their lowest in a World Cup match on record, but the counter-attacking they showed was amazing. 

If big Dan Burn is in the side, Haaland is not getting a sniff. I saw a meme: it was the Wii Sports thing, the guy who keeps heading the ball when they play to him on the game, and that was Dan Burn against Mexico. 

I'd be shocked if he starts this one, but if we need to enact the Dan Burn protocol, I've got no concerns about that. 

England have been knocked out in five of their last six World Cup knockout eliminations against European teams, including each of their last three. 

What approach is Tuchel going to go for in this one? Does he try to sit back, rely on that pace on the counter-attack, or do England try to dominate the ball again and try to pick the lock? That is a big question that Tuchel has got to answer. 

I've got no worries about the psychological impact of getting over that hill. 

There is now a bigger hill to get over, but the emotion and the joy we saw is going to be lingering, and it has to motivate them to the extreme for this one.