Erling Haaland Scores Twice More as Norway Hold On Late Against Senegal
Six minutes. That is how long Erling Haaland waited after halftime before he was running onto a pass and burying it past a goalkeeper who had no chance. Haaland scored twice as Norway beat Senegal 3-2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on June 23, 2026, in their Group I match at the World Cup, and the two goals carried him into territory few strikers ever reach this early in a tournament.
Norway beat Senegal 3-2. Marcus Pedersen scored in the 43rd minute, Haaland added two more in the 48th and 58th, and Ismaila Sarr replied twice for Senegal in the 53rd and deep into stoppage time. The win sends Norway through to the knockout rounds with a game against France still to come.
Here is what made this one personal. Haaland had scored twice in Norway’s opening match against Iraq. A second straight brace would put him in company that barely exists, matching a feat only Harry Kane had managed in the past 50 years. The Manchester City striker did not need reminding what was at stake. He just needed the ball.
He got it in the 48th minute, and what happened next was pure instinct. Martin Odegaard slipped a perfectly weighted pass through the Senegal back line, and Haaland did not break stride. He ran onto it in full flight, took one touch to set himself, and drilled a left-footed finish past the outstretched hand of Edouard Mendy. It was a counterattack finished in seconds, the kind of move that makes defenses look slow even when they are not.
Ten minutes later he did it again, and this one carried more violence in the execution. Patrick Berg, on for Fredrik Aursnes at halftime, found space and slid a pass into the box. Haaland met it first time, volleying home from eight yards with the kind of finish that does not allow a goalkeeper time to react. He cupped his hand to his ear afterward, and the Norway section behind the goal answered with the Viking Row, thousands of fans chanting and rowing in unison.
For all the noise that goal created, this was not a comfortable night for Norway. Senegal answered Haaland’s first goal within five minutes, Sarr finishing tidily after good work from Sadio Mane. Then, with the match seemingly settled at 3-1, Sarr struck again in the third minute of stoppage time, this time set up by Nicolas Jackson, to turn a comfortable scoreline into a nervous final few seconds. Norway survived a header from Sarr in the ninth minute of stoppage time that came agonizingly close to forcing extra drama. It did not arrive.
Make no mistake, this performance extends something remarkable. Haaland now has four goals through two World Cup matches, and across his last twelve appearances for Norway he has scored in every single one, twenty-four goals in that stretch alone. He sits one behind Lionel Messi in this tournament’s scoring race and level with Kylian Mbappe. The numbers keep stacking up around a player who is still only 25, still climbing toward whatever ceiling exists for a striker built like this.
Here is the thing — Haaland was not even flawless on the night. He struck the post in first-half stoppage time after Mendy fumbled a cross, the kind of chance he usually finishes, and a clinical hat-trick was sitting right there for him to take. He did not take it. Two goals had to be enough, and on this occasion, barely, they were.
Norway’s victory was not built on Haaland alone, even if his name will dominate every headline. Pedersen, thrown on after just 13 minutes when Julian Ryerson went down injured, scored on his World Cup debut with a shot that deflected awkwardly past Mendy. Odegaard pulled the strings throughout, finishing with two assists worth of creative output even if only one showed up in the books. Senegal, for their part, will point to a 0.58 expected goals on target reading from Sarr’s two strikes and wonder how this game ever got away from them in the first place.
It now leaves Norway tied with France atop Group I, with a meeting between the two unbeaten sides four days away in Boston that will likely decide who tops the group outright. Senegal face a must-win match against Iraq with their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread.
What do you call a player who scores in every international appearance for over a year, breaks records that have stood since the last time a different generation of strikers walked this stage, and still leaves a match wondering what might have happened with one more sharp finish at the near post? Haaland does not seem interested in the question. He just keeps scoring, match after match, record after record, and lets everyone else work out what it means.