England set up a World Cup semi-final clash with Argentina with an edgy extra-time win over Norway on Saturday.

Here are our Scout Notes from the game, featuring match stats from our World Cup Toolkit page.

NORWAY 1-2 ENGLAND

• Goals: Schjelderup | Bellingham x2
• Assists: Odegaard | Gordon, Rogers
• Shot on target bonus (England): Kane
• Tackles bonus (England): Saka
• Top points scorers (England): Bellingham (14), Gordon (5), Saka (4), Rogers (4)

TEAM STATS

PLAYER STATS

SCOUT NOTES

• Not 100% convincing, riding their luck at times, but finding a way. That pretty much sums England up last night, although it could also be said of Spain and Argentina in their victorious quarter-finals and myriad teams in the first two rounds of the knockout stages. Mentality is as valuable as technical quality at this stage of a World Cup, and even those not of an English persuasion would probably acknowledge that the Three Lions have it in spades.
• Thomas Tuchel hailed the commitment of his side after the game, toning down his initial post-match criticism of his team with a more measured appraisal in the press conference:

“I’m impressed with the effort they put in, their commitment, team spirit, belief, and ability to overcome adversity, persevere, and find ways to win. They’re at the highest possible level. They can’t be praised enough for that, but I’m also a football coach, and I believe we can play better. Overall, I don’t think it was a top-level match. I think, generally speaking, we’ve played better games. There were a lot of shifts in momentum for both teams. So all the credit goes to the team.” – Thomas Tuchel, via Futbol Fantasy

• Norway did take the lead fortuitously when Andreas Schjelderup‘s cross found its way in via the post, but Stale Solbakken’s side threatened throughout. There were a couple of warning shots before the opener, when Erling Haaland nearly pounced on a short back-pass and nodded on target, and Landslaget were the more dangerous side for long periods of the second half, especially. Haaland should have been played in by Alexander Sorloth, while the woodwork was struck and a set-piece goal was contentiously chalked off for a foul. The BBC’s ‘match momentum’ graph below shows how the game swung in Norway’s favour about half an hour in:

• When you’re not firing on all cylinders collectively, it always helps to have world-class individuals who can deliver ‘moments’. This game was partly billed as ‘Haaland v Harry Kane ($10.5m)’ but England of course have another joker up their sleeve: Jude Bellingham ($8.3m). It’s hard to think of a current midfielder who times his dashes into the box as well as the Real Madrid man, and he drew level with Kane in the Golden Boot race with goals five and six of the World Cup here. Driving superbly into the area to score after fine work from Anthony Gordon ($7.0m), he then grabbed the winner in extra time when Morgan Rogers’ ($7.2m) shot had been spilt.

“World-class. A world-class performance from a world-class player in the big, big, big moments. Absolutely top-level.” – Thomas Tuchel on Jude Bellingham, via Futbol Fantasy

• What owners don’t want to see is Bellingham further back in midfield, which happened at times on Saturday. However, at least Tuchel acknowledges that a deeper Bellingham is not optimal, and he swiftly looked to remedy this against Norway:

 “Jude Bellingham started as a right-sided number 10, and when we made the changes at halftime, we moved him to left-sided number 8, more of an 8-10 position. That put him a few yards deeper on the pitch, which wasn’t ideal for us because I want him as far forward as possible. Then we brought on Reece James and moved him to number 6, which freed up Elliot Anderson to move back to number 8 and allowed Jude Bellingham to return to right-sided number 10. When we brought on Morgan Rogers, because we needed Reece James at right-back, we moved Elliot Anderson back to number 6 and played Morgan Rogers as number 8, and defensively, with a double pivot.” – Thomas Tuchel, via Futbol Fantasy

• Bellingham aside, who else impressed? Gordon was very good again down the left, assisting the opener. However, probably the other stand-out contributions came off the bench. Djed Spence ($4.5m) was surprisingly excellent at left-back when he came on. Bukayo Saka ($9.5m), benched for this one as the minute management continues, again proved he’s streets ahead of Noni Madueke ($6.1m), putting in a solid shift down the right. Saka contributed three shots and two key passes after emerging at half-time. Rogers and ‘big’ Dan Burn ($4.5m) also made key contributions.
• Does any of them force their way into the semi-final line-up, however? Saka surely starts ahead of Madueke when 100% fit but Tuchel may favour his impact as a ‘finisher’ while he’s not. Nico O’Reilly ($4.7m), meanwhile, did little wrong to lose his place to Spence. Once again, the Manchester City man was a sporadic goal threat, nearly forcing in an opener before Schjelderup did.
• The fitness scares appear to be of minimal concern, too. Ezri Konsa ($4.8m), redeployed here at right-back as John Stones ($4.6m) came in at centre-half, came off only with cramp. Declan Rice ($7.0m), hooked at half-time, was merely feeling the effects of last week’s illness.

“We had some players struggling with the heat. Ezri Konsa was one of them, with hamstring cramps. Who was the other? Well, Declan Rice.

“At half-time, we made the decision to be more attacking, to make a change in our attacking approach.

“So, we brought on Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka for the right wing. That meant we had to take off either Elliot Anderson or Declan Rice, knowing that Declan Rice had been struggling after the last three days, during which he had spent most of his time in bed. I knew he couldn’t last 90 minutes and there was a possibility the game could go to 120. I didn’t want to waste another substitution, so the decision was to take Declan Rice off before he needed to come off to save us another substitution later on.” – Thomas Tuchel, via Futbol Fantasy

• We haven’t mentioned much of Kane but he did have the ball in the net for a marginally offside goal, and nearly had an extra-time penalty to take, only for the decision to be overturned. It was one of his least threatening appearances (two of his three shots came from way out, including a direct free-kick) but the Argentina defence looks far from watertight, so there are few concerns about him for the semi-finals.
• It’s farewell to Norway, then. Haaland couldn’t bow out with a goal, and didn’t even last the course, being replaced in the second half of injury time.

 “It wasn’t a difficult decision to substitute him because he was finished. Perhaps I should have taken him off ten minutes earlier, but he had already experienced a very demanding World Cup. He used all his energy and strength match after match. I think he also took a knock to his leg around the 65th minute. That combined with fatigue. But he did everything he could.” – Stale Solbakken on Erling Haaland, via Futbol Fantasy