Norway had the final answer, and it came from the player Ivory Coast could least afford to leave free.
Erling Haaland scored in the 86th minute to send Norway into the World Cup quarterfinals with a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast at AT&T Stadium. Antonio Nusa had put Norway ahead before halftime, Amad Diallo pulled Ivory Coast level in the second half, and Haaland turned a tight Round of 32 match back toward Norway before Ivory Coast’s late push could reach extra time.
Ivory Coast finished with 14 shots, five on target and 14 corners. Norway had fewer chances, but the better finishing moments. That was the difference in a game that looked ready to stretch beyond 90 minutes until Patrick Berg found Haaland in the center of the box and Norway’s No. 9 finished left-footed from close range.
The opener came in the 39th minute, when Martin Ødegaard released Nusa on the left side of the box. Nusa drove his right-footed shot into the top-right corner, giving Norway the lead after Yahia Fofana had already denied Haaland’s header and Alexander Sørloth had gone close from a corner. It was the kind of efficient first half Norway needed against an Ivory Coast side that kept finding crossing lanes.
Amad changes the match, Haaland changes it back
Ivory Coast pushed after halftime with the urgency that had carried it through earlier tournament pressure, including the late tension in the Germany group-stage match. Nicolas Pépé forced Ørjan Nyland into a save in the 55th minute. Franck Kessié had another effort stopped two minutes later. Emmanuel Agbadou and Guéla Doué both missed as the pressure built through corners and second balls.
Amad’s introduction gave Ivory Coast the directness it needed. Fourteen minutes after coming on, he arrived at the right side of the six-yard box and turned Pépé’s assist into the bottom-left corner. Ivory Coast had the match level, the stadium noise rising and Norway suddenly defending deeper than it wanted.
Then Haaland changed the whole frame. Norway had managed only nine shots and three corners, but its front line still carried the threat of one decisive sequence. Berg supplied it in the 86th minute, and Haaland finished it. Andreas Schjelderup nearly added another after Haaland’s pass in the 90th minute, but by then Norway had already found the goal that decided the night.
Ivory Coast still had chances to drag the match back. Amad forced Nyland into a save in the sixth minute of stoppage time, and Evann Guessand headed wide from very close range two minutes later. Those were the margins Ivory Coast will replay: enough shots to stay alive, enough corners to keep Norway under pressure, but not enough precision after Haaland had restored the lead.
For Norway, the win adds another European contender to a quarterfinal picture that already has room for individual match-winners, from France’s different attacking routes to the knockout chaos elsewhere in the bracket. For Ivory Coast, it is a sharp exit from a tournament that had kept alive the broader question of which African team will break through first at a World Cup.
Norway did not need the volume Ivory Coast created. It needed Nusa’s top-corner finish, Nyland’s late saves and one Haaland touch in the box. That was enough to end Ivory Coast’s run.
