Haaland Snr may have been more forthcoming than his son with his views on the match officials in Norway's quarter-final defeat to England, but the Three Lions did not have it all of their own way either...

Norway

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Football is a game of contrasting opinions, clearly, but Norway striker Erling Haaland preferred to focus on the positive and they way his team represented the nation on football's biggest stage.

"We are touched by the fact we have done so well and it's brought people together in Norway," Haaland said, after losing 2-1 in extra time to England in the quarter-finals.

"There is a lot of positivity in the joy we have had in our country and here as well.

"It's difficult to think over things right now. It's quite an insane event. You really do have to experience this. That has been my goal.

"I would like to put Norway on the map and establish us as one of the best teams in the world. I think we have sold Norway on the map here."

He has also charmed the American public with a series of well-received social media posts during the World Cup that have seen his following on Instagram grow from 40 million before the tournament began to 63.9 million.

It was more than a surprise to see Erling Haaland substituted at half-time of extra-time.

With his side chasing an equaliser, arguably the most fearsome striker on the planet made way.

Some speculated that manager Stale Solbakken had made an almighty call based on Haaland's performance but the Norwegian coach has clarified the Manchester City striker was carrying an issue.

"It was not a tough decision to take him out because he was finished, maybe I should have done it 10 minutes before," said Solbakken.

"But he obviously had a tremendous World Cup, we used his energy and power for game after game after game.

"I think that he also got a dead leg in the second half so that combined with fatigue. But he did everything he could, he was a little bit unlucky in a couple of situations, but scoring seven goals in five games for us. He had a fantastic World Cup."

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Norway also hit the bar in the second half and snatched at a couple of good opportunities to add to Andreas Schjelderup's somewhat fortuitous first-half opener.

Luckily for England, none of those chances fell to Norway's leading goalscorer Erling Haaland, who was unable to add to his tally of seven goals for the tournament.

The Manchester City striker was substituted before the second half of extra time, and has been left stranded one goal behind Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot...

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Norway captain Martin Odegaard was left wondering what could have been after his side exited the World Cup at the quarter finals stage.

"It's difficult. I feel that we were so close," he said, after Norway gave up a one-goal lead to lose to England 2-1 in extra time.

"We did what we could, maybe we were in a low block in the first half but they didn't do anything and we got ahead.

"Then we conceded two easy goals and didn't get much help from the referee. The margins went against us and we had a bit of bad luck."

Overall, Odegaard was pleased with his side's World Cup campaign.

"It's been fantastic, it's been a fairytale," he said. "We can be proud of ourselves.

"The whole world is talking about us, a quarter-final in the World Cup is a huge achievement. Now we have a taste of it."

Torbjorn Heggem's second-half effort for Norway would not have been disallowed in the Premier League last season as the incident happened before the corner took place.

A new law introduced for the World Cup was applied in this case, allowing referee Clement Turpin to bring play back and order that the corner should be retaken.

Turpin was asked by the VAR to review the incident on his pitchside monitor after he had originally missed a push from Erling Haaland on Elliot Anderson as the two players grappled before the corner.

He ruled that Anderson had been unable to help defend the corner as a result of the push.

• Click on the play icon below to watch the incident. Do you think it was the correct decision, or were England lucky?

The video assistant referee was certainly kept busy in England's win over Norway, John...

Former England winger John Barnes knows a thing or two about what it takes to reach a World Cup semi-final.

He helped the Three Lions into the last four at Italia 90, and was denied a place in the semi-finals of Mexico 86 by the twinkle toes [and hand] of Maradona.

Speaking on 5 Live earlier today, he gave a poetic response to concerns about VAR and spidercam, saying football is "wonderful" because of its imperfections.

"Throughout this whole World Cup, Fifa are interpreting offsides - ‘is it a penalty? Is the ball over the line? Is it a red card?’

"And of course, we then think we’ve perfected it [football]. Us mere mortals think we have done it now with VAR and all of that.

"But then they’ve thrown another little spanner in the works - a little wire flying above the ground. The ball hits it and we now can’t agree on whether the ball hits it.

"This is why football is wonderful."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Norway manager Stale Solbakken acknowledged that, in football, sometimes you get the rub of the green and sometimes you don't after his side were knocked out by England.

"I feel sorry for the lads," he said after England came from behind to beat his side in extra time.

"This is top level sports at it's best or it's most gruesome. We were lucky against Brazil, today we were not so lucky. We had margins go in our favour against Brazil, but not today.

"Sometimes you're lucky. We were lucky against Brazil. Today we were not. The margins were not in our favour, but that's life."

He was philosophical about the Erling Haaland foul which led to a second Norway goal being chalked off.

"These things happen," said Solbakken, who was shown on TV footage angrily throwing a bottle of water into his dugout in response to the refereeing decision.

"We just want to wish England the best of luck."

That goal clip may not have provided definitive evidence, but check out the analysis below from Wayne Rooney.

The former England striker says the "ball does seem to deviate and come down quite quickly" following the goal kick from Orjan Nyland.

The ball landed at the feet of England's Elliot Anderson and he started the attack that led to Jude Bellingham's equaliser.

However, presenter Jason Mohammad read out a statement from Fifa that said the data from the ball's sensor showed no peak in the graph to suggest a connection with the spidercam.

England were trailing to Andreas Schjelderup's opener for Norway when the incident in the build-up to their opener occurred in first-half stoppage time.

Replays showed Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland's goal kick passing close to the spidercam cable suspended above the playing surface.

The ball then fell for Elliot Anderson, who fed Anthony Gordon before the England winger passed for Jude Bellingham to drive on to the ball and calmly score.

Several Norway players immediately surrounded referee Clement Turpin, arguing the goal should not have stood. Head coach Stale Solbakken was seen talking to the match official at half-time.

Of the decision, Solbakken said: "He [the referee] says that he didn't see it himself and that he didn't get any message that it actually happened.

"That's a good explanation and since Fifa says there was no touch and there was no signal from the chip of the ball, then he can't do anything about it. The ball fell straight down, right in front of the bench, so it did touch it.

"Many on the bench reacted immediately. I was not one of them, but many of them saw it."

The goal clip below does not quite pick up the "touch" described by Solbakken...

Adwaidh Rajan
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Norway's impressive World Cup campaign ended in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat by England, but their exit was accompanied by frustration as they felt Jude Bellingham's equaliser should have been disallowed for an unusual reason.

The Norwegians claimed the ball struck one of the spidercam wires in the build-up to Bellingham's equalising goal in Miami.

Had it been determined that the ball had touched a wire, the goal would have been ruled out and play restarted with a dropped ball.

"It's ridiculous, this one with the wire," Norway and Fulham midfielder Sander Berge said after the game.

"[The result] 2-1 says itself – there are small margins and we know which way it went."

Image source, X

Erling Haaland's dad has weighed in on discussion about how officiating impacted Norway's exit from the World Cup, suggesting England were "saved by the referee".

He felt the game could have had a very different outcome after the Three Lions ran out 2-1 winners after extra time in Miami.

With the score 1-1, Torbjorn Heggem seemed to have given Norway the lead again before VAR said that Erling Haaland had fouled Elliot Anderson in the lead up and chalked it off.

The referee later failed to stop play after the ball hit a camera cable in the build-up to England's equaliser.

After the match, manager Stale Solbakken said that "the margins were not in our favour".

But Haaland's dad Alfie took a stronger view, posting on social media to say that Norway had been robbed.

"Saved bye [sic] the referee", wrote Haaland, who earned 34 Norway caps between 1994 and 2001.

"Hope you win the WC now.

"But feel we got robbed today."

In a separate post, he wrote: "Well done Bellingham and referee."

Image source, Getty Images

The video assistant referee played a key role in England's win over Norway.

One decision very much went in the favour of England, while the other two went against them:

• Harry Kane had a goal ruled out at the end of the first half for offside, when England were very much in the ascendancy moments after Jude Bellingham's equaliser. It was a clear decision and there were no complaints from the Three Lions.
• Norway, however, were incensed by a decision after the break, when Torbjorn Heggem prodded home from close range following a corner, only for play to be brought back for an Erling Haaland push on Elliot Anderson before the corner had been taken. It was 1-1 at the time so, if the goal had been allowed to stand, Norway would have retaken the lead.
• England were condemned to a nervous finale in the second half of extra-time after referee Clement Turpin overturned his original decision to award a penalty for a foul on Djed Spence, when the Three Lions led 2-1. VAR intervened and after Turpin looked at a replay on the pitchside monitor he decided Spence had initiated contact with Norway's Oscar Bobb, purposefully planting his leg in front of him.

Flora Snelson
BBC Sport Journalist

Is Lionel Messi really as good as Jude Bellingham?

I'll leave that for you to ponder over.

Bellingham's excellence was a memorable aspect of a game that might feel hazy if you're just waking up after a late night.

One thing you might have missed, as I did, is Norway's complaint over Bellingham's equaliser.

It wasn't clear why Norway players were hounding match officials as the players headed down the tunnel for half time as there didn't appear to be any contentious moments in the build up to the stoppage-time leveller.

As it turns out the subject of their complaints was really hard to spot.

We'll take you through it shortly - but first, let's review the VAR's role in last night's quarter final.

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Former England forward Wayne Rooney has given the Three Lions advice on how best to contain the impact of Lionel Messi.

"He can be a weakness defensively for Argentina," Rooney said, after England beat Norway 2-1 on Saturday night to set up a semi-final with Argentina, during which the team will face Messi for the first time.

"He doesn't run back, but he has big moments a bit like with Jude Bellingham. He has big moments and moments of quality.

"The thing with Messi is his decision-making – he comes to life in moments of the game and he makes the right decision.

"Marking Lionel Messi is about concentration and communication. Communicating with your team-mates about picking up positions you might not usually pick up."