Norway vs. England: Vikings here "on merit" and have a certain Erling Haaland in red-hot form

Ahead of Norway's 2026 World Cup quarter-final with England on Saturday, Sports Mole's Senior Reporter Oliver Thomas discusses the Vikings, and a certain Erling Haaland.

Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter: "This is not an easy fixture"

England will be listed as favourites for this game but they will be well aware this is not an easy fixture. 

Many predicted pre-tournament that if England were to progress to this stage they would most likely come up against Brazil in the quarter-finals, but they now face a different test in Norway. 

Norway are here on merit. I don't think we can take too much away from that 4-1 defeat to France because they rested, I think, 10 players for that game. 

They beat Iraq 4-1 and they beat Senegal 3-2 in the group stage in what was a tricky fixture to call before kickoff. Senegal are a strong side but Norway were deserving winners in that match. 

And of course they go and beat Brazil: not a huge shock, but they were underdogs going into that game as they will be against England. 

The fact that England beat Mexico in the manner they did, in that environment at the Azteca, will give them so much confidence now. 

There are a couple of fitness issues to deal with, as well as that right-back dilemma that Thomas Tuchel faces. England will rightly back themselves to win here against Norway and, on paper, England do have a stronger squad. 

Norway do have a certain star name in Erling Haaland up front, but England have their own prolific talisman in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham just behind him, both scoring goals for England. 

Hopefully England can build on those two hard-fought wins against DR Congo and Mexico. I don't think they have peaked too soon. 

I think there is still more to come from this England side. As difficult as this game against Norway could prove to be, I think England will back themselves to win this one. 

It's natural that we can feel the momentum and the belief that England are going to win it, and it's huge now compared to before the Mexico game. 

Norway will be coming in with a similar level of belief, momentum and motivation, because that win against Brazil is their most famous ever result, their biggest and best ever result to get through to the World Cup quarter-finals. 

It was an upset in terms of FIFA ranking and World Cup pedigree, but nobody would've been shocked if Norway had won that game, partially because Brazil hadn't really looked that great and Norway had also impressed.

They would've gone into the Brazil game thinking it's one they could very well win, and they'll go into this game thinking the same. 

Similarly to when we talk about players like Messi and Mbappe, we're starting to run out of words to describe just how brilliant these players are, and it's the same with Haaland. 

There's actually an argument to be had over whether he's maybe the greatest Scandinavian player of all time.

You've got the likes of Michael Laudrup of Denmark and Peter Schmeichel, as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden. 

Interestingly, Ibrahimovic said at the start of this World Cup that Haaland needs to do much more to reach, in his words, the freak of nature that is himself, and he labelled Haaland a one-dimensional player. 

Goals win you games. While Ibrahimovic failed to score in any of his five World Cup games, Haaland has already netted seven goals in just four games at this tournament. 

He is the first player to score at least seven goals in his first four World Cup games since Gerd Muller of Germany back in 1970. 

Ibrahimovic never actually reached a knockout round at the World Cup with Sweden, whereas Haaland is just one game away from reaching a semifinal in his maiden World Cup. 

Haaland has probably achieved a bit more than Ibrahimovic has done in any of his World Cup appearances. The numbers that Haaland is recording are just ridiculous. He's completely defying comprehension. 

He's averaging over a goal a game for Norway, and he's the fastest player in international football to ever reach 60 goals. He's now moved on to 62 with that brace against Brazil. 

There was a lot of talk before the match about that battle between Haaland and Gabriel, and he certainly won that: he actually won all four of his aerial duels against Brazil. 

At the time of recording, he has the best aerial duel success rate of any striker to contest more than 15 at the World Cup since records began in 1966, with a 78% success rate. 

That is something England need to watch out for. You've got Marc Guehi, Haaland's Manchester City teammate, who is likely to play at centre-back. 

They will need to be really on top of their game to keep Haaland quiet. England's back line has been shaky at times at this tournament and they can't afford to make any errors facing someone as lethal as Haaland. 

Haaland versus this England side is a really interesting matchup. A lot of familiar faces will be on show because Norway have other players in their squad who play in England. 

If England can keep him quiet, I think they have a strong chance of winning this game and reaching the semi-finals.