Norway vs England Preview: Team News & Prediction | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Quarter-Final
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.
Norway team news: Aursnes fighting for a spot
Further team news will appear here closer to the match after pre-match press conferences…
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.
Predicted XI (4-3-3): Nyland; Ryerson, Ajer, Heggem, Wolfe; Odegaard, Berge, Berg; Sorloth, Haaland, Nusa
Unavailable:
Questionable:
England team news: Recovering from Mexico
Further team news will appear here closer to the match after pre-match press conferences…
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.
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, likely ruling the Brentford man out.
Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Spence, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane
Unavailable:
Questionable: James (Fitness), J. Henderson (Injured)
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
- Coming soon...
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
