Norway have needed less than a month this summer to rewrite decades of World Cup history. A run that started with automatic qualification and continued through four knockout matches has put Stale Solbakken’s side in the last eight of the 2026 tournament, a stage the country had never reached before now.
That achievement has already reshaped the Norway vs England odds market, with a fixture nobody would have predicted 18 months ago now the most talked-about tie left in the competition. England reached the same stage by beating Mexico 3-2 and will face Norway in the quarter-final on Saturday night.
A single match in 1938
Norway’s World Cup story began and nearly ended on the same afternoon. Their 1938 debut, in the days when the tournament was a straight knockout with no group stage, pitted them against the eventual and defending champions, Italy, in the first round. Norway lost 2-1 after extra time. It stood as the country’s best World Cup run for the next 60 years, since reaching that opening match was, under the format of the day, already a last-16 finish.
A 56-year wait, then a group nobody could shake off
Norway did not return to the World Cup until USA 1994, a 56-year gap. They landed in a Group E alongside Italy, the Republic of Ireland, and Mexico, which produced one of the most level tables in tournament history. Norway beat Mexico 1-0 but drew with Ireland and lost to Italy, finishing on identical points and goal difference to all three rivals. Mexico went through on goals scored, and Norway were eliminated without ever losing more than one match.
1998, and Norway’s finest hour until now
Four years later in France, Norway improved on that near miss. In the group stage, they beat Brazil 2-1, Tore Andre Flo cancelling out Bebeto’s opener before Kjetil Rekdal converted a late penalty past Claudio Taffarel. It remains one of the biggest shocks in the tournament’s history. Norway gained a further two points after draws with both Morocco and Scotland, which sent Norway through to the last 16, where they lost 1-0 to Italy. That round of 16 finish matched their 1938 exit as the best in the country’s history, a record that stood for 28 years.
The 28-year wait ends in Milan
Norway missed the next six World Cups before an unbeaten qualifying campaign, all eight games won and 37 goals scored, sealed a return with a 4-1 win away to Italy in their final group match. Erling Haaland scored 16 of those 37 goals. At the tournament itself, he has taken his tally to seven, level with Kylian Mbappe and one behind Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot standings, after two goals apiece against Iraq and Senegal, a stoppage-time winner over Ivory Coast, and a decisive second-half double in the 2-1 win over Brazil that sent Norway into the quarter-finals for the first time. That surge has been tracked closely on Betfair’s sportsbook promotions, where Norway’s price for a first World Cup title has shortened sharply since the Brazil result.
Haaland and Norway’s scoring history
Haaland’s international numbers now dwarf those of anyone else who has played for Norway. He has scored 62 goals in 54 caps, close to a goal a match, and only six of them from the penalty spot. He passed Jorgen Juve’s long-standing national record of 33 goals, a mark that had stood for around 90 years and had gone unchallenged even by players such as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer across a full international career.
88 years after that single match against Italy, Norway are now at a stage in the World Cup none of their previous squads came close to reaching.
