Key events
88 min: Saka drops a shoulder to jink past Moller Wolfe and into the Norway box. He fires a low cross into the centre. With Eze and Kane lurking, waiting to sidefoot home from six yards, Aursnes arrives out of nowhere to hook clear! England so close!
86 min: O’Reilly is replaced by Spence.
85 min: It’s Nusa versus Konsa again, but this time the winger wins the duel, entering the box before scuffing a poor shot straight at Pickford.
84 min: Odegaard strokes a lovely pass down the inside-left to release Nusa into space, but there are no options in the middle for the winger, who eventually runs slap-bang into Konsa.
83 min: … but the corner doesn’t beat the first man, and then Odegaard harmlessly wedges a pass down the left out of play for a goal kick.
82 min: England can’t get out. Nusa advances down the left and wins a corner off Saka. Before it comes in, Haaland makes a point of tightening his ponytail. He’s intending to bang a header goalwards.
80 min: Bobb, Berge and Berg ping a lot of triangles down the right. No way through. Then the ball’s shuttled to the other flank, Nusa floating a diagonal into the mixer; it’s headed clear by O’Reilly.
78 min: Saka sends an inswinger into the Norway box from the right. It’s dangerous. The ball goes all the way across the face of goal, but Anderson can’t get on the end of it to poke into the bottom left. Goal kick.
76 min: … Pickford punches clear. Not very far. Aursnes sends a bouncing bomb through a crowded box. Moller Wolfe flaps a header goalwards, over Pickford and off the crossbar! The ball eventually squirts out for a goal kick. England have been second best in this half, and the luck’s been with them. Can they find a way to turn the tide?
75 min: Nusa probes down the left and wins Norway another corner. From which …
74 min: Bobb dribbles into the England box from the right. He drops a shoulder and nearly gets past O’Reilly, whose challenge isn’t convincing … but the defender does just enough to force the ball back to Pickford.
73 min: Nyland’s weak pass out from the back is intercepted by Saka … but Saka can’t control and the Norway keeper gets away with a poor one.
71 min: The game restarts, with James having replaced Gordon.
70 min: Yep, that Nyland clearance definitely hit an overhead camera cable. Norway were fuming, as it directly led to the England goal, and play should have been stopped. But here we all are.
68 min: Nusa and Bobb come on for Schjelderup and Sorloth … and that’s drinks. England host the second-half snacks, and they serve up some vindaloo cooking sauce. Keith Allen and Cheese Guy from Blur have an awful lot to answer for.
66 min: Gordon’s looping cross from the left nearly drops to Kane, on the right-hand corner of the Norway six-yard box … but Moller Wolfe nips in to clear, just in time.
64 min: Regarding the Heggem strike, Haaland really didn’t need to push Anderson out of the way. An unnecessary and costly act. England have got away with a couple of big ones today; Norway have let a couple of big situations slip.
62 min: England are struggling to get out of their half at the moment. Meanwhile on the subject of disallowing goals, here’s Beau Dere, with a message from the USA, on something that hasn’t been shown on UK television: “There’s some chatter that a ball hit the camera cable before the England goal,” he reports. Nyland’s clearance, by all accounts, which led to England picking up the possession that led to Bellingham’s goal. Norway were reportedly livid at half-time. More on that when we have it.
60 min: Ryerson makes way for Aursnes.
59 min: England deal with this corner easily enough. Then Ryerson goes down, so play stops.
NO GOAL: Norway 1-1 England
57 min: No goal! But because the ball hadn’t come into play when Haaland made the foul, the corner will be retaken.
56 min: … but did Haaland shove Anderson over in the build-up? VAR calls the referee over to the monitor.
GOAL! Norway 2-1 England (Heggem 55)
It’s third time lucky for Norway from a corner! The ball comes in from the right. England don’t deal with it. Sorloth whip-cracks a shot from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Pickford blocks, but the ball breaks left to Heggem, who extends a leg and turns home from a couple of yards!
54 min: Ryerson sends a dangerous corner through the six-yard box. It comes off Stones and out for a third corner in the sequence, from the right again.
53 min: Kane clears the corner with a power header. The ball comes straight back and Haaland plants a downward header towards the bottom left. Pickford shovels the ball around the post, but not in a particularly confident manner. Another corner coming up, this time from the left.
52 min: Sorloth mishits a cross from the right. The ball’s heading over the bar, but not by too much, and Pickford can’t take the chance of it squeaking into the top right. So he turns it over for a corner. From which …
51 min: Saka embarks on his first dribble down the right. He cuts into the box but his shot is easily blocked by Moller Wolfe.
50 min: This second half has been a bit more combative than the first. Less of a nod is being made to conserving energy. Both teams up for it. Kári Tulinius called it well.
48 min: Anderson holds onto Haaland for a split second too long, causing the big man great irritation. Haaland eventually shoves him away. They’ll be good pals at Manchester City soon enough.
47 min: Eze’s free kick pings off the back of his own man Gordon, then over the bar for a goal kick. Not the greatest of first touches for the half-time sub. Onwards and upwards.
46 min: Gordon dribbles in from the left and pings a pass to Kane, who draws a clumsy foul from Berge, just to the left of the D. Another big chance coming up for England here. “Sørloth really made a mess of that two versus one,” writes Nicolas. “He’s just not bringing enough quality on the ball and sharp decision making to exploit England’s defensive weaknesses. Would rather see Bobb in his place.”
England get the second half started. They’ve made two changes, Saka and Eze coming on for Madueke and the presumably ill Rice. “Both teams started with a clear plan to conserve energy,” begins Kári Tulinius, “but both sides got pulled into the logic of the moment: it’s a World Cup quarter-final, the only thing bigger than that is a World Cup semifinal, you gotta run your head off. It’ll be interesting to see who’s got deeper reserves of energy in the second half. Worryingly for England, Haaland’s barely even broken into a jog.”
Never mind Ellie Goulding … on ITV it’s the Anthony Barry half-time show! “I feel like the environment, the climate impacted the first 20-25 minutes,” England’s assistant manager says. “It impacted our offensive power … the goal with an undeserved wonder-shot … we got an important goal ourselves right before half time … it released the stadium, released our lads and now it is all to play for.”
Half-time postbag. “Jude Bellingham is handily having the best World Cup an England footballer has had since Paul Gascoigne. If the trend line continues, it’ll be getting into Bobby Charlton territory, he’s been extraordinary” – Christopher Faherty
“Goals win games but also defence. John Stones’ two-on-one defending was outstanding. England may well win from that, I hope they acknowledge it” – Lenny Hz
“You might be doing young Schjelderup a disservice regarding his fortunate ‘cross’. It looked deliberate, and certainly he celebrated as if he’s been practising it all week. If he can’t play he can certainly act” – Gervase Greene
“Guehi trying to out-muscle Haaland is hilarious, almost like he’s never experienced the big fella before” – Stu Smith
“I don’t know how bad the illness was and if he had fever, but between that, the heat, and the humidity, Rice seems to be well and truly cooked” – João André
“I had been quietly confident until the news that Harry had golfed with Donald. Why invite karma?” – RH
“As an expat who grew up with 70s NFL – I did not have Garo Ypremian mentioned in a World Cup MBM on my bingo card! Garo was a Cypriot who was one of the first ‘soccer-style’ kickers in the NFL and was actually one of the best” – Rob Young
HALF TIME: Norway 1-1 England
It took a while to get going … but it got going. Both sides will have their frustrations after that; both will feel they’ve got enough tools to win, as well. Should be one hell of a second half!
45 min +4: England have the ball in the net again! Bellingham dinks down the inside-right channel to release Kane, who wedges a gentle chip over Nyland and into the net! But the flag immediately goes up for offside, correctly so.
45 min +3: Norway should have been 2-0 up. Now it’s 1-1, and England’s tails are suddenly up again! Kane whistles a forensic low drive towards the bottom left from 25 yards. Nyland needs two grasps to get the ball under control.
GOAL! Norway 1-1 England (Bellingham 45+2)
It’s that man again! Gordon crosses low from the left. Bellingham picks up possession on the edge of the box, takes a couple of touches down the inside-left channel, then swivels and whips a shot across Nyland and into the right-hand side of the net!
45 min +1: The first of four additional second-quarter first-half minutes goes by.
45 min: A corner for England on the right. Rice takes it. Again the delivery’s no good. The ball pings back to him, and he’s flagged offside. Rice hasn’t been on it today at all, to the extent that you wonder if he’s really over that bug.
