Iraq's Fourth Failure.. Haaland Leads Norway to Their Best World Cup Statistics

SadaNews - The Iraqi national team marked its return to the World Cup after a 40-year absence with a crushing defeat against Norway and its top scorer Erling Haaland, losing 1-4 on Tuesday at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough/Boston, in the final round of the first group matches in the 2026 World Cup.

The match between Iraq and Norway produced a number of important statistics that frame what happened during the 90 minutes between the "Vikings" and the "Lions of Mesopotamia" and suggest technical superiority for Erling Haaland's teammates during significant moments of the game.

Historical Statistics for Norway.. and Haaland

Norway returned to the World Cup after a 28-year absence with a long-awaited victory since their last win in the 1998 edition, noting that they spent the previous 56 years without victories between the 1938 tournament in France and the 1994 tournament in the United States.

This is the first time Norway has scored three or more goals in a single match in their World Cup and European Championship history (the 12th match).

Norway has not lost in four matches in World Cup history against teams outside Europe (winning 3 matches and drawing 1).

Erling Haaland is the first player to score more than one goal in a single World Cup match for the Norwegian national team.

Haaland scored both of Norway's goals in the first half, putting his country ahead in the first half of a World Cup match for the first time; previously, the Norwegians had only scored one goal in the first half of their eight previous World Cup matches.

Haaland has scored in all of his last 11 official matches with the Norwegian national team, including scoring more than one goal in the last five matches, and he has scored at least one goal in 17 of his last 20 official matches with the Norwegian national team since the beginning of 2023.

Arab Statistics

Iraq has lost all four of its World Cup appearances, and this is their first defeat by more than one goal.

Ayman Hussein scored Iraq's second goal in its World Cup history, having netted 12 goals during the Asian Football Confederation qualifiers, which is more than double what any of his teammates have achieved.

Mirchas Doski made five successful attempts to intercept balls in this match, the most for an Iraqi player in a World Cup game, as only two players (Moroccan Achraf Hakimi and Egyptian Mohannad Lashin – 6 attempts each) have recorded more successful attempts so far this tournament.

Source: Al Jazeera