Erling Haaland shines with a hat-trick despite missing two penalties
In an exciting World Cup qualifying match, Manchester City star Erling Haaland proved his worth by scoring a hat-trick for Norway against Israel, despite missing two penalties.
The first penalty by Haaland was saved by goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. However, the referee ordered it to be retaken because the goalkeeper moved forward. In the second attempt, Haaland tried a shot to the corner, but Peretz guessed the direction again, frustrating the Norwegian striker.
Haaland recovered quickly and scored a goal with a powerful shot after receiving a pass from Alexander Sørloth. This was his tenth goal in the qualifying phase.
The Norwegian striker continued his impressive performance, scoring two more goals to complete his hat-trick and raise his tally to 12 goals in the competition, the most in the UEFA rankings.
Furthermore, Haaland has scored 12 goals in nine matches for Manchester City this season, totaling 136 goals in 155 matches for the club.
With this hat-trick, Haaland reached 51 goals with the Norwegian national team, establishing himself as the country’s all-time top scorer.
Norway maintains a perfect record in the classification, with six wins in six matches. They lead Group I with a nine-point advantage over Italy, although the Italians still have mathematical possibilities of reaching the first place and obtaining a direct pass to next summer’s World Cup.
Norway has not participated in a World Cup since 1998.
Before the match in Oslo, peaceful pro-Palestinian protests took place. The police stayed near the stadium, at a safe distance from the protesters.
The stadium was almost full, with between 22,000 and 23,000 spectators. Capacity was reduced by 3,000 seats due to security measures.
