2026 World Cup: England favorites to reach semi-finals – Norway boss

Striker Haaland scored seven goals as Norway reached the quarter-finals.

This is their first World Cup since 1998 – and their longest ever.

After wins over Iraq, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Brazil, it turned into a win over Holland.

On Friday, the focus of the last eight was on Holland and England captain Harry Kane, who has scored six times in five games in the competition.

Asked if it would be a straight shootout between the goal-scoring pair to determine the result, Solbakken said: “Norway versus England.”

“It’s no secret that Kane is the number one match-winner for England and Erling is the number one match-winner for us,” he added.

“There’s no doubt that he (Haaland) is the biggest match-winner, but if you think that’s the general theme, I think you’re discounting some of the other players.

“He needs service too, but you can’t deny he’s a big, big match-winner for us.”

Solbakken is a big fan of England, despite defender Jarrell Quassah being sent off in the 54th minute at the Azteca Stadium.

We have to compete and defend properly, we have to focus on the field and then we can be ourselves.

“Jude Bellingham and Kane scored from great positions. I think the most impressive (England) game came when they were better than Mexico.

“Mexico created very few chances and I think (Thomas) Tuchel managed to get their best players in good positions. And being match-winners like Bellingham, Kane – they have a lot of options on the wings which means if one person doesn’t have a day, the other one comes in and then does something good, then settle down with Elliott and Anderson in the middle of the park.”

Norway had 66.4% of the ball in their win over Brazil.

Asked if he expected his side to be the same size as England, Solbakken said: “No, I don’t.

“He’s warming up. We’ve been training very lightly. We haven’t worked that hard (in training). We’ve had technical sessions but it’s been in low tempo.

“It’s all about being fresh tomorrow.”