England survived the high altitude and fierce home support of their last 16 tie in Mexico and now return to the more familiar, friendly and comfortable surroundings of the USA for their quarter-final match-up against Norway.
The Vikings have become most supporters' second favourite team at the 2026 World Cup, largely due to their 'Viking Row' celebration, which can be heard and seen during the match performed by the crowd, as well as the players on the pitch at the end of the game.
The stadium is unlikely to be as partisan as first thought due to the support that Norway have gathered, particularly since their 2-1 win over Brazil in the last 16. However, England have more later tournament experiecne that their opponents and got the better of Norway in their pair's only previous encounter, a 1-0 friendly victory back in 2014.
Norway, led by the goals of Erling Haaland, have both scored and conceded in each of their opening five matches at the World Cup, and their biggest test against France ended in a hefty 4-1 defeat, though, they did rest several key players for that game, including Haaland.
England are going to have to find some way of keeping the big Norwegian striker quiet on Saturday, although Thomas Tuchel's men haven't relied on keeping clean sheets as many expected before the tournament began.
Both teams have scored in three of England's opening five matches, including both of their knockout games against DR Congo and Mexico, so conceding against Norway's prolific attack looks probable, but not disheartening.
The Three Lions will be looking to their front pairing of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham for inspiration this weekend. Both rose to the occasion when called upon against Mexico last time out, and we're backing Bellingham to find the back of the net once again.
The Real Madrid midfielder has scored four times at the 2026 World Cup, sharing the goalscoring burden with Kane, who has six goals. Norway, on the other hand, have relied heavily on the goals of Haaland, who is the only one of his team to have scored more than once at the 2026 World Cup.
Bellingham helped himself to a brace against Mexico, in what was England's best performance so far, and the Mexican defence simply couldn't handle two big goal threats inside their penalty area, something we believe an average Norway defence will also struggle to deal with.
This game feels like it's going to be close and competitive throughout, but England's experience in the latter stages of major international tournaments could make all the difference.
Norway 1-2 England
