Haaland's Father Says Norway Was Robbed in Loss to England

Rarely does a team’s World Cup dreams end with their star on the bench, but that was the case for Norway in a 2-1 loss to England as Erling Haaland was subbed out in the final 15 minutes of extra time while Norway’s quarterfinal hopes dwindled.

It was the first scoreless game of the tournament for Haaland, a stark contrast from scoring seven goals in four matches.

Now, the heat was certainly a factor, and it’s something that FIFA is looking into the protocol for as the heat index went over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and contributed to a bunch of “dead legs” in the game, notably to Haaland, which is why he was taken out.

It wasn’t a match without controversy either, as Haaland’s father, Alf-Inge Haaland, went so far as to say that England was “saved” by the refs and that Norway was “robbed” as a result.

What would have put Norway up in a 2-1 stand was wiped out when it was ruled that Haaland fouled England’s Elliot Anderson.

There was also question of whether overhead wires above the pitch affected England’s opener and made the ball drop “straight from heaven” despite the sensors showing no contact.

Now, for his credit, Haaland declined to blame the officials and noted that it’s normal for top teams to get the calls.

To read more about England's equalizer and all of the controversy surrounding the match, here is the full story from Football Roundtable writer Subhojyoti Basu.

England’s game plan was clearly to neutralize Haaland, and it was massively successful.

Thanks to Haaland’s Manchester City teammates, they knew to simply keep the ball as far from his as possible.

It worked quite well with only two shot attempts by Haaland and just one on target.

For England, Jude Bellingham sent them straight to the semifinals, and he embraced his former Dortmund teammate Haaland following the match.

The English will now head to take on Argentina in Wednesday’s semifinal as Norway’s improbable World Cup run comes to a close.