World Cup 2026 Qualifiers: Italy defeated by Haaland, England achieves perfect record

TPO - Having declared that they would beat Norway, the Italian team ended up with a heavy 1-4 defeat. This defeat left them in a heavy psychological state as they entered the play-off round. Meanwhile, another force in European football, the English team, finished the qualifying round with a perfect record.

In the match against Norway early this morning, Italy had to win at least 9-0 to take the top spot from their opponents. In fact, they started very smoothly with a goal in the 11th minute from Eposito. But that was all Italy could muster in the match.

The task of winning by a large margin quickly became impossible for the Azzurri as they lost the game to the Nordic representatives. Norway equalized early in the second half thanks to a tricky left-footed shot from Nusa. And from then on, the game belonged to Norway. They attacked relentlessly, leaving Italy almost defenseless.

But with Haaland at the helm, Norway confidently overcame any defense. In just over 10 minutes, they scored 3 goals in a row. First, Oscar Bobb crossed accurately for Haaland to volley past Donnarumma. Then, Haaland cut in and finished in the helpless blue defenders and in injury time, Strand Larsen scored the 4th goal for Norway to seal a 4-1 victory.

Kane scored both goals for England

Norway finished the group stage with a perfect record. This is the first time Norway has returned to a World Cup finals in 28 years. Since the last time, many of the Norwegian players have not even been born.

As for England, they also won like Norway but were more impressive in not conceding any goals. Early this morning, this team defeated Albania 2-0 to keep a clean sheet throughout the qualifying campaign.

Both England goals were scored by Harry Kane and thanks to that, the 32-year-old striker also achieved an important milestone. He scored 78 goals, entering the Top 5 European strikers with the most goals in history for national teams. Kane is only behind Ronaldo, Lukaku, Lewandowski and Ferenc Puskas.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/vong-loai-world-cup-2026-italia-dai-bai-duoi-got-haaland-anh-lap-thanh-tich-hoan-hao-post1796772.tpo