Erling Haaland was right about France – but Norway robbed fans of World Cup highlight | Opinion

Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAYFri, June 26, 2026 at 9:07 PM UTC

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FOXBOROUGH, MA – Maybe Erling Haaland had the right idea about his Norway squad’s match Friday against France.

And maybe he was right about France winning the World Cup – not that he was going out on a limb in the first place.

Haaland, after Norway had already secured its place in the knockout stage, admitted Norway would have its hands full against France when the group finale rolled around. That was especially the case as the Norwegians opted to trot out the “B Team” – all but one of the starters from their 3-2 win over Senegal four days earlier started the match on the bench – against France, which ended in a 4-1 French victory.

The French dominated from the opening seconds, literally, as Kylian Mbappe’s strike in the first minute banged off the crossbar. Ousmane Dembélé scored six minutes later with relative ease to begin the deluge. Dembélé’s encore was even more spectacular, as his second goal of the match was a left-footed curler from the top of the box that put France up 2-0 in the 20th minute.

Haaland and Norway did the international soccer version of “thanks but no thanks” and thought that resting was a higher-value play than potentially winning the group, as is their prerogative. But why not at least entertain the idea of winning the group and finishing with nine or seven points, instead of settling for six?

That France’s back line had issues with Norway's backups gave credence to the idea that this could have been a more equal battle with both sides at full strength. Defender William Saliba, a 6-foot-4 presence in the back, was out with injury.

At one point in the first half, as Norway threatened to equalize and the score 2-1, I wondered why Haaland sat on the bench with a chance to win the group. The answer came almost immediately, when Dembélé mirrored his second goal with another brilliant left-footed strike – this one inside the box – to make it a two-goal game once more.

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In the opening minutes of the second half, Norway had a prime opportunity to make it a one-score game. But French keeper Mike Maignan stonewalled Jorgen Strand Larsen’s penalty attempt and kept it 3-1. Debating whether Haaland would have netted his penalty is not the point – it’s that he should have been the one lining it up anyway. During the 67th minute, fans on the south side of Gillette Stadium started chanting for Haaland.

The reasons for sitting Haaland revolve around health concerns and yellow-card worries. Haaland hadn’t been booked yet this tournament and appeared healthy enough in the team’s first two matches, in which he twice scored a brace. Haaland scored 16 times in eight qualifying matches. The 25-year-old is basically good for a pair a game.

To win the game, you gotta be in it, though. France’s stars were on the pitch. They won. Oversimplification? Sure. But sometimes, the answer is easier than presumed to be. And for some reason, Norway decided to play the best team in the world with the difficulty turned all the way up. The “Red, White and Blue” won’t hate their matchup against Ivory Coast. Winning the group in their first World Cup since 1998 would have been the bigger win, though.

With Didier Deschamps home in France mourning the loss of his mother, the team was managed by his longtime assistant, Guy Stephan. If that led to any negative effect on the pitch, it was negligible.

Perhaps the fate of this match was decided long ago, before Haaland uttered his prediction into a microphone Monday. Perhaps the entire tournament is fait accompli, with the runners-up from four years ago destined to lift the trophy for the second time in three tournaments.

Norway could have had a say in that. They opted not to. And “Les Bleus” march on as the prohibitive favorites – and everybody knows it, even the opposition.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Erling Haaland, Norway stars should have played vs France at World Cup

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