World Cup: England, Bellingham oust Norway in extra time | Habib

MIAMI GARDENS — The two star strikers didn’t score goals, they prevented them.

A wayward cable, odd as it sounds, may have played a bigger role in the scoring. Or at least it earned a place in World Cup lore.

Amid the unexpected twists in England’s 2-1 extra-time victory over Norway in the World Cup quarterfinals at Hard Rock Stadium, at least there was Jude Bellingham.

Yes, Jude Bellingham, who, if England coach Thomas Tuchel ever tries to convince you is teetering on a place on his team, don’t you dare believe him.

“World-class performance from a world-class player in big, big moments,” Tuchel was saying Saturday night (July 11). Tuchel’s tune had changed after Bellingham scored both goals to send England into Wednesday’s semifinal against Argentina in Atlanta.

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Coupled with Bellingham’s two goals in England’s groundbreaking victory against host Mexico, he’s making a mockery of Tuchel’s stance in the buildup to this World Cup, including a line that Bellingham had a fight on his hands for a spot in the lineup.

Today? Bellingham is the hottest striker on a team that includes Harry Kane.

Kane, for his part, had a quiet evening, except for a moment just before halftime when he put the ball in the net only to be ruled offside. Which wasn’t as bad as the other gunslinger on the marquee, Norway’s Erling Haaland, getting called for a shove that caused an apparent go-ahed goal by Torbjorn Heggem to be disallowed early in the second half.

And for shock value, there was Haaland getting subbed out midway through extra time when Norway had 15 minutes to find an equalizer or go home.

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Home it is for the Norwegian team and their row-row-row-happy fans who in no small way brought everlasting joy to this tournament. And, hard as it may have been, they exit upbeat despite a difficult break that would have had other teams crying foul, if not picking up the phone to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

In the buildup to Bellingham’s first goal, there was a pass that may have hit a TV cable. The play involved Elliot Anderson collecting a clearing kick near midfield and passing to Anthony Gordon, whose low cross allowed Bellingham to dribble by Heggem inside the box and send a low shot inside the back post to tie the score at 1-1.

TV replays appear to show the ball slightly changing trajectory midair, although FIFA indicated that a sensor inside the ball never registered an issue, so the goal stood.

Rest assured clips of the play will be analyzed as much as the Zapruder film. Without the benefit of such evidence, Norway coach Stale Solbakken went by what he knew and what others on his bench said — namely, there was contact with the cable.

“The ball drops down straight from heaven,” he said. ” … I think it’s pretty clear that it did (hit).”

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It would be a disservice to Solbakken to not add context — namely that while he was simply being honest in his claim, he in no way was walking away feeling robbed.

“It was a bad moment for us, but we can’t do anything about that,” he said. “I don’t think we will play the game again. So that’s how it is.” He added, “I think we can sit here and complain, and maybe we are more right to feel that today most margins went in our disadvantage. But against Brazil, the margins were in our favor. That’s also part of football. Maybe we need margins to beat the world’s best teams.”

It was as if he knew that by taking the high road, he was only adding another layer to the most successful World Cup run Norway had ever enjoyed.

“I’m most proud of the fact that we’ve been here for 6 1/2 weeks and the players and staff have been so supportive,” he said. “We haven’t had boring moments. I don’t think our dear fans back in Norway have, either.”

They had one final major moment to enjoy, in the 36th minute, when Andreas Schjelderup unleashed a perfect, 70-mph shot that glanced off the inside of the framework of the goal and went in for a 1-0 lead.

For those convinced Solbakken must have gotten his own wires crossed by taking out Haaland, he explained his reasoning, pointing to the steamy conditions even by South Florida’s summer standards. The heat index was in the low 100s at kickoff. Players began the match at a walking pace, protecting themselves in case it went into extra time and later being glad they did.

“He said he was finished at 70 minutes and he was in at 105,” Solbakken said of Haaland. “We should have taken him off 10 minutes earlier.”

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Bellingham, 23, who also came out in the dying minutes, but his work was virtually complete three minutes into extra time when he rammed home a rebound. Morgan Rogers fired a long-range shot that goalkeeper Orjan Nyland spilled. At that point, Bellingham’s goal was all but academic.

“The game is split into different facets,” said Bellingham, who plays for Real Madrid. “Some of it’s technical, some of it’s tactical. To me the biggest one is psychological and how you can manage setbacks and adversity. And this team showed again you can do it and that’s a really valuable skill and trait you can have going into this stage of the tournament.”

Know what else is? Having two players with six goals apiece in the World Cup. That would be Bellingham and Kane, even though Bellingham all but recoiled when asked if this game had been a game of his dreams.

“To be honest, I’m a confident boy but I don’t think you go to bed at night dreaming about games like that,” he said. “I’ve said before in the interviews I’ve done, it’s nice to have an impact and to help my team but my God, the effort of those lads … ”

This was a night when Norway made a statement, even in defeat, after a 28-year absence from the World Cup. England, obviously, made a statement of its own. Put it together on a trying evening and it’s another win for a tournament that can’t stop serving them up.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: World Cup: England, Bellingham oust Norway in extra time | Habib