Haaland and Norway just knocked Brazil out of the World Cup ⚽

🇳🇴 Norway 2, Brazil 1: Haaland ended the five-time champions

For about 80 minutes this looked like Brazil surviving a scare. Then Erling Haaland decided he was not flying home. The Norway striker scored twice in the final eleven minutes, his sixth and seventh goals of this World Cup, to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win and send Brazil, five-time winners, crashing out in the Round of 16. Neymar pulled one back from the penalty spot deep in stoppage time, but it was far too late. Earlier, Brazil had a penalty of their own saved, the kind of miss that haunts a team all summer.

For Norway this is enormous. This is their first World Cup in 28 years, and they are into the quarterfinals of it. A country that spent a generation watching from home now has the tournament's hottest striker and a place in the last eight. If you like the World Cup for the moments when a giant falls and someone new gets to dream, this was your night.

🇲🇽 Tonight at the Azteca: Mexico vs England

As I write this, Mexico and England are underway at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, a match that got pushed back about an hour by thunderstorms rolling over the valley. By the time you read this it may well be decided, so check the bracket, but here is what makes it a genuinely hard one to call.

The history splits in two directions. England have won their last four meetings with Mexico, so recent form favors Thomas Tuchel's side, and the bookmakers have them as slight favorites. But Mexico have never lost a World Cup match at the Azteca, ever, and that is not a small thing. Add the altitude, the pitch sits over 2,200 meters up, where the air is thin and legs turn to concrete in the final twenty minutes, plus a stadium that will be deafeningly, overwhelmingly for the home side. England have the better squad on paper. Mexico have the mountain, the crowd, and history on their side.

Whoever comes through this one earns it. That is the beauty of a Round of 16 at a hostile venue: there is no easing into it.

The bracket is starting to take shape

Saturday set the first quarterfinal in stone. Morocco beat Canada 3-0 and France got past Paraguay, which means France vs Morocco in the last eight, a rematch of the 2022 semifinal that France won. Morocco, for the record, are the first African side to reach back to back World Cup quarterfinals, which is its own quiet piece of history. Norway are through as well after tonight, waiting to see who joins them.

And the Round of 16 keeps rolling. Monday brings Portugal vs Spain, an all-Iberian heavyweight bout, and the United States vs Belgium, with one of the co-hosts trying to keep its home tournament alive. Tuesday closes the round with Argentina vs Egypt and Switzerland vs Colombia. Then it is straight into the quarterfinals, where every game is a coin flip with a nation's summer riding on it.

Why I keep coming back to the knockouts

Brazil went out tonight not because they are bad, but because one striker got hot at the wrong moment for them and the right one for Norway. No second leg, no aggregate, no "we'll get them next time." You get ninety minutes, maybe a bit more, and then your World Cup is either alive or over. That pressure is the whole point, and it is why a Norway can walk in and topple a Brazil. Sixteen became eight tonight and tomorrow. Buckle up.

Scorelines and kickoff details above are as of Sunday evening, July 5, 2026, and the Mexico vs England result may have landed after this went up, always double check FIFA.com or your broadcaster for the final. Who is still alive in your bracket? Reply and let me know. Verified July 5, 2026.