England did not play well overall on Sunday. Jude Bellingham did not care.
The Three Lions survived a genuine scare from Norway at Miami Stadium, coming from behind to win 2-1 after extra time and reach the FIFA World Cup semifinals for the first time since 1990. Bellingham scored twice—his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament—to drag England through a match that their coach admitted they had no business winning the way they played it.
“We are in the last four. It’s amazing but not happy with the performance, in every sense,” Thomas Tuchel said. “We made life difficult for ourselves in the way we played and how we played—sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”
Honest assessment. Accurate assessment. But England are through, and that is all that matters at this stage of a World Cup.
Norway Draw First Blood
The conditions were brutal from the opening whistle. A 5 p.m. local kickoff in Florida meant temperatures stayed above 30 degrees Celsius throughout, with punishing humidity reducing the opening quarter to something close to a walking pace. Then Andreas Schjelderup woke everybody up—his effort flying over Jordan Pickford into the top corner to give Norway a shock lead.
Suddenly England looked rattled. Norway sensed it and pushed, and should have doubled the advantage. Pickford made a low save from Martin Odegaard. Alexander Sorloth then wasted a glorious opportunity, choosing to go for goal himself rather than feed a free Erling Haaland. Those missed moments would come back to haunt them.
They always do.
Bellingham Saves England, Again
Almost immediately after Sorloth’s miss, Bellingham did what Bellingham does. He had been well contained until Anthony Gordon’s pass found him on the edge of the box. He burst forward, shifted the ball onto his weaker left foot, and slotted it home. Just like that, England were level—and the momentum shifted completely.
England nearly went into the break ahead when Bellingham played in Harry Kane, whose dinked finish over Orjan Nyland was ruled out for offside. Close, but not quite.
Tuchel made attacking changes at halftime—bringing on Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze for the ineffective Noni Madueke and an illness-affected Declan Rice. Those changes created width but left England light in midfield, and Norway made them pay for it in the second half.
Torbjorn Heggem turned in at the back post after England failed to clear a corner—what looked like Norway’s lead restored, before VAR disallowed it for a Haaland push on Elliott Anderson before the ball had even been delivered. Then Kristoffer Ajer rattled the crossbar from a dangerous set piece, and for stretches England were hanging on with very little composure.
Haaland—who had scored in 14 consecutive competitive matches for Norway and turned an entire nation’s tournament dreams into reality—was substituted at half time of extra time with nothing left in the tank. His spectacular run of scoring came to an end against the country of his birth. He watched the closing stages from the bench, slouched and exhausted. It said everything about the physical toll the match had taken.
Nyland’s Error Seals It
The winning goal was not elegant. It rarely is in extra time at a World Cup.
Nyland—who had been brilliant in Norway’s round of 16 win over Brazil—this time became the villain. Substitute Morgan Rogers fired a shot from distance that Nyland could only spill, and Bellingham was quickest to react, sweeping the loose ball into the net for his second of the night and England’s winner.
England were awarded a penalty shortly after, only for VAR to intervene in Norway’s favor, ruling that Djed Spence had initiated the contact inside the box. It did not matter. Norway had no more fight left to give.
England advance to face either Argentina or Switzerland on Wednesday, with a place in a first World Cup final in 60 years on the line. Before this tournament, England had not won a knockout game after conceding first since that 1966 final. They have now done it twice in three matches.
They are grinding. They are scraping. They are in the semifinals.
