World qualifiers: Haaland drags Norway, Wales comes close to a feat in Belgium
Norway’s path in Group I of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the one that also includes Italy, continues under full sail: the trip to Estonia turns out to be more complicated than expected, but Erling Haaland signs at 62′ the goal of the 1-0, a result that will remain on the scoreboard until the triple whistle. Norwegians still ahead of everyone with 12 points in 4 games played, ahead of Israel with 6 (3 played), Italy (2 games) and Estonia (4) on 3 points and Moldova the tail end with 0 points in 3 games.
In the other rounds, Belgium’s pyrotechnic 4-3 win against Wales stands out: ahead 3-0 thanks to Lukaku (penalty), Tielemans and Doku, the Red Devils were joined by goals scored by Wilson on a penalty, Thomas and Johnson. Deciding the challenge, however, was Kevin De Bruyne’s goal, which gave the Belgians the three points in the 88th minute.
Another goal-scoring victory, on the other hand, for Croatia, which after a 7-0 thrashing of Gibraltar on Friday night beat the Czech Republic 5-1: Kramaric scored with a brace, Modric on a penalty, Perisic and Budimir, also on a penalty. Useless, on the other side, Soucek’s momentary 1-1 goal. The Czechs remain ahead in Group L, but now have only a 3-point lead over the Croatians, who have two matches to make up.
Finally, North Macedonia won by a narrow margin in Kazakhstan 1-0 (Trajkovski, formerly of Palermo, was decisive) and the Faroe Islands beat Gibraltar 2-1 with Johannesen’s winning goal at 86’86’ completing the comeback started by Frederiksberg at 71′ after “Team 54” had taken the lead through Scanlon at 23′.
