Norway vs England Preview: Team News & Prediction | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Quarter-Final
by The Stats Zone ·
Updated
The third of this summer’s FIFA World Cup quarter-finals comes in Miami as one of the stories of the summer, Norway, take on one of the pre-tournament title favourites England on Saturday.
Kick-off date/time:
How to watch on TV: UK – ITV / USA – FOX Sports
How to watch online: UK – ITVX / USA – FOX One
Norway preview: Making history
Norway have reached the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup for the first time ever with Stale Solbakken’s side seeing off five-time world champions Brazil by two goals to one in New York/New Jersey.
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland made it seven goals for the tournament with a match-winning brace against the Brazilians. The clinical finisher was again superb in the crunch moment, with captain Martin Odegaard putting in one of his best performances in any shirt for quite some time.
Norway, who had been superb in qualification and were seen by many as outside contenders for the FIFA World Cup, have lived up to their billing as entertainers after an impressive group stage.
They had beaten Iraq by four goals to one before a fun 3-2 victory against Senegal in their second game. Solbakken then made ten changes to their side as they succumbed to a 4-1 loss to France in a game whereby the scoreline was harsh on the Scandinavians.
England preview: A famous night
In Mexico City, England were up against a range of factors with the conditions and crowd playing a huge part but a quick-fire brace from Jude Bellingham after a frenetic start to the game put some minds at ease - only for a short moment, though, with Julian Quinones getting a goal back for the Mexicans just before the break.
Bellingham, who had put in a last-ditch clearance just after Quinones scored to deny Cesar Montes a certain equaliser, then deflected Nico O’Reilly’s shot onto the post in a frantic start to the second half.
Then, with what would have felt like the world against them, England were reduced to ten men due to a wild challenge from Jarell Quansah. That appeared to not matter a couple of minutes later when Harry Kane converted a penalty won by Anthony Gordon.
That wasn’t to be the end of the drama, though, with Kane then adjudged to have kicked Brian Gutierrez before kicking the ball, allowing for Raul Jimenez to step up and convert a penalty with just over 20 minutes of normal time to go.
Those 20 minutes turned into half an hour with 11 minutes of injury time but Thomas Tuchel’s ten men held on for one of the famous victories in English football history.
England had started their group stage campaign with an excellent performance against Croatia, admittedly mainly in the second half, as they won 4-2 against the 2018 runners-up and 2022 semi-finalists. A draw with Ghana and an unconvincing win against Panama followed before needing to come from behind against Congo DR in the round of 32.
Given the circumstances and the scenarios that played out, England’s win in Mexico was and is a famous one. They will need to show major improvement in their overall game, though, if they are to get any further in their tournament.
Norway team news: Aursnes fighting for a spot
Having come out of international retirement earlier this year, Benfica’s Fredrik Aursnes has enjoyed an impressive tournament but the form of Bodo/Glimt captain Patrick Berg is keeping him out of midfield for the time being after Berg came in for that final game against France and impressed.
Aursnes is capable of and has filled in at full-back, as he did to finish the game against the Brazilians, coming on for Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Ryerson who has overcome an injury he sustained against Senegal. He could, however, come in at left-back ahead of David Moller Wolfe, who is a doubt.
There had been reports that Norway were dealing with a sickness bug earlier this week but all now appears to be fine.
Predicted XI (4-3-3): Nyland; Ryerson, Ajer, Heggem, Aursnes; Odegaard, Berge, Berg; Sorloth, Haaland, Nusa
Unavailable:
Questionable: Wolfe (Injured)
England team news: Recovering from Mexico
England will have to spend their time simply recovering from their gruelling encounter in Mexico City but they appeared to come through it relatively unscathed, albeit Jarell Quansah will now be missing through suspension for two matches.
Reece James did make the bench for that game and may be able to play some minutes here, while experienced midfielder Jordan Henderson suffered a serious arm injury in the aftermath of the game during England’s celebrations.
James is said to have taken part in full training ahead of this one, alongside both Marc Guehi and Declan Rice - who had also been suggested as doubts before Friday’s final training session.
Dan Burn and John Stones are both an option if Guehi isn’t fit but the fact he returned to training will relieve some concern for Tuchel.
Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Spence, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane
Unavailable: Quansah (Suspended), J. Henderson (Injured)
Questionable: Guehi (Fitness), James (Fitness), Rice (Fitness)
Norway’s top FIFA World Cup Fantasy assets
Antonio Nusa ($6.1m) – Midfielder
Martin Odegaard ($7.7m) – Midfielder
Erling Haaland ($10.5m) – Forward
Matchday 6 captain pick: Erling Haaland
Set-piece duty
Penalties: Erling Haaland
Free kicks: Martin Odegaard
Corners: Martin Odegaard
England’s top FIFA World Cup Fantasy assets
Jude Bellingham ($8.3m) – Midfielder
Anthony Gordon ($7.0m) – Midfielder
Harry Kane ($10.5m) – Forward
Matchday 6 captain pick: Harry Kane
Set-piece duty
Penalties: Harry Kane
Free kicks: Declan Rice
Corners: Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka
Key stats
- Norway are unbeaten in their last three competitive matches against England (W2 D1), the most recent a 2-0 win in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Oslo in June 1993 that helped to qualify Norway for USA ’94, with England missing out.
- Norway have reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.
- Norway are winless in their six World Cup matches against European teams (D2 L4).
- Norway have lost only two of their last ten World Cup matches (W5 D3). They have won four out of five at this edition (L1).
- Norway have lost just two of their last 21 matches (W16 D3).
- Norway have now scored 12 goals at the 2026 World Cup – extending their all-time best in a single edition of the tournament.
- Norway have opened the scoring in four of their five matches at the 2026 World Cup.
- Erling Haaland has scored 62 times in 54 appearances for his country, having now found the net against 27 different nations. England would be the 28th.
- Erling Haaland has scored in each of his last 14 competitive encounters for Norway, netting 27 goals during that run.
- England have progressed from three of their ten World Cup quarter-final ties.
- England have lost only one of their last ten matches at the World Cup (W7 D2).
- England are aiming to win four successive World Cup matches for the first time since a six-match run when they won the last five in 1966 and their opening game of the 1970 edition.
- With his 17th appearance against Mexico, Jordan Pickford is now England’s joint-record appearance-maker in FIFA World Cup history, matching Peter Shilton’s tally. He will become England’s all-time leading appearance-maker if he makes his 18th in this match and Harry Kane is poised to move onto 17, pulling level with Shilton.
- Harry Kane has scored 14 goals at the World Cup, extending his record as England’s all-time top goalscorer in the competition.
- A goal for Harry Kane would see him equal Gary Lineker’s England record of scoring in four successive World Cup appearances, with Lineker achieving the feat across the 1986 and 1990 editions.
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Norway vs England prediction
Norway have been thrilling to watch throughout the tournament and their attacking and exciting ways go back further than that. In fact, their 2-1 defeat of Brazil was the sixth successive Norway game to feature both teams scoring. It also means that their last 15 matches have consisted of 59 goals.
Thomas Tuchel has been asking for a Premier League-like style from his England team and are finding it easier to deliver that when teams come on to them a bit more, as has been the case in a six-goal thriller against Croatia and then the five-goal match with the Mexicans.
Norway are expected to fall into the category of Croatia and Mexico, rather than the conservative Ghana, Panama and Congo DR, and they will also fancy themselves to score at least a goal with their impressive attack. England, too, will believe this is their best chance to get at a side at this tournament so far and so an entertaining quarter-final is in store.
Norway vs England betting tip: Over 2.5 goals
