The Vikings (Warriors) of Norway on Tuesday at the Dallas Stadium in Airlington subdued a sleepy herd of Elephants of Ivory Coast in the round of 32 games 2-1 to, for the first time, qualify for the 2nd round of a World Cup grand finale.
Gangling man mountain of a man, Erling Haaland, who was surprisingly left off tight marking at a crucial time by the rather tired Ivorien defence, collected a pass from Patrick Berg in the 86th minute to castrate the Elephants and send them back to Abidjan for revitalisation for further football engagements.
That was Haaland’s fourth goal in this tournament.
Antonio Nusa of Norway had broken the ice to score first in the 39th minute curving the ball into the net from the left flank to the far top right of the net on receiving a tap pass from Martin Odegaard.
The rising star of Ivory Coast, Amad Diallo of Manchester United, who will be 24 years on July 11, showed great individual skill on collecting the ball from Nicolas Pepe to equalise in the 74th minute and the Norwegian defence were watching his fanciful duck movements.
Forty-two-year-old Jesus Noel Venezuela from Venezuela, who was listed as FIFA ref in 2013 and had handled the Bosnia vs Qatar game in this tournament, was the man with the whistle.
He was CONMEBOL best Referee in 2021 and had been in charge of 386 games across all competitions issuing 1906 yellow cards (4.94 per match) and 115 red cards (0.3 per natch). Attendance was 69,665.
Norway ranked 31 in their 4th appearances never going beyond the 2nd stage had at the group stages knocked down Iran 4-2; seized the Lions of Senegal 3-2 but fell to France 4-1.
Ivory Coast, ranked 33 also in their 4th appearances getting into the knockout stages for the first time, had piped Ecuador by a lone goal; lost to the German Machines 1-2 and bullied out debutante Curacao 2-0.
Norway will now face the Samba Boys of Brazil in the round of 16 at East Rutherford on July 5, a day after Morocco would have tackled Canada at the same stage of the competition at Houston.
