Haaland's double sends Norway past Brazil and into World Cup quarter-finals

Erling Haaland scored both goals as Norway eliminated Brazil from the 2026 World Cup with a 2-1 victory at New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday, booking a quarter-final place for the first time in the nation’s history.

Haaland’s brace — and a commanding goalkeeping display from out-of-contract Orjan Nyland — proved enough to withstand a nervy finish, as Neymar converted a stoppage-time penalty that briefly threatened to overturn Norway’s lead. The Brazilians could not find a second, and Norway held on to complete what coach Stale Solbakken described as the country’s greatest football result.

Norway will now face co-hosts Mexico or England in the last eight.

Solbakken was effusive in his praise for a squad he credited with exceptional collective spirit. “This is a great group, they love being together, they train well, they help each other and protect each other,” he told reporters. “We have a strong culture and we give the opportunity to let people be themselves and say whatever they want — and that’s a very important part of the whole thing, when things go well and when things go not so well.”

At the final whistle, Norway’s players and supporters launched into their now-familiar rowing celebration, mirroring scenes of mass jubilation reported on the streets back home.

The match also featured an unusual half-time spectacle: Atlas, an advanced humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, delivered the match ball to the referee pitchside — and demonstrated a passable imitation of Haaland’s meditation goal celebration in the process. Standard Wi-Fi communications were replaced by a dedicated radio device strapped to the robot’s back, given the signal interference from tens of thousands of fans with mobile phones surrounding the pitch. Engineers also had to retrain Atlas’s movement algorithms to cope with grass. “We had to change the way that Atlas learns to walk and learns to jump and run so that it’s more robust,” said Alberto Rodriguez, Boston Dynamics’ director of robot behaviour.

Parent company Hyundai has announced plans to deploy Atlas robots at its U.S. manufacturing plant in Georgia from 2028 to handle high-risk and repetitive tasks — but Sunday marked the robot’s most high-profile public appearance to date.