Norway squeak into knockout stage as Haug thrills in Philippines thrashing

Norway’s 2023 World Cup campaign until Sunday had been defined by lacklustre football, reported discontent in the locker room as one star was benched and another absent due to injury, and a single point and zero goals from two games. It left world’s 12th-ranked team on the brink of elimination in the group stage.

Then came Sunday’s decisive match at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, where a plucky Philippines side with hopes of making history were the victims of all of Norway’s frustrations being channelled into a comprehensive performance.

Sophie Haug scored a hat trick for Norway including two goals in the opening 17 minutes to subdue a raucous, pro-Philippines crowd of 34,697 fans, and Norway triumphed 6-0 to advance to the knockout round of the tournament.

The emphatic result made certain that Norway would advance from the group in the second position. They will play the winner of Group C, either Spain or Japan.

Switzerland topped Group A thanks to a scoreless draw with New Zealand in a match played simultaneously in Dunedin. That result eliminated New Zealand, making them the first host country to ever fail to get past the group stage.

Caroline Graham Hansen dazzled in her return to Norway’s starting lineup after being dropped for the scoreless draw with Switzerland five days earlier. Graham Hansen scored Norway’s third goal of the night with a stinging strike from 25 yards that skipped inside the near post.

Three minutes earlier, she spun, turned and nutmegged the Philippines defender Angela Beard in one fluid motion, then sent a low cross to Haug, who flicked the ball behind her back and missed the near post by inches for what would have been a hat trick.

After that Switzerland match, Graham Hansen lashed out and exposed an apparent row within the Norway camp. “I feel I have been stepped on for a whole year,” she said. She apologised soon after those comments, saying emotions got the best of her.

Frustrations had boiled over in the Norway camp, having entered this game sitting at the bottom of Group A after losing to tournament co-host New Zealand 1-0 in the opening match. They followed that disappointment with the scoreless draw against the Swiss in a game that saw Graham Hansen left out of the starting lineup.

Star forward Ada Hegerberg, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner, was pulled from the lineup moments before kick-off against Switzerland due to muscle tightness. She remained absent for this encounter with injury.

But Hegerberg’s replacement for the past two games, Haug, stepped up: her opening goal was a sensational volley from an acute angle at the back post six minutes into the match.

Thea Bjelde lofted a right-footed cross over the Philippines’ defence to find Haug, who started a second straight match at centre forward in place of the injured Hegerberg. And 11 minutes later, Haug scored a near carbon-copy goal, this time getting her head on a deep cross from Vilde Bøe Risa.

The Philippines entered the match coming off the high of an historic first World Cup win – over co-hosts New Zealand – but failed to register a shot until the 39th minute, by which point Norway had attempted 13.

Matters got worse in the second half. Philippines defender Alicia Barker deflected a Norwegian cross into the back of her own net three minutes after the break, and moments later, a VAR review led to a penalty call. Philippines midfielder Jaclyn Sawicki was deemed to have tripped Norway’s Guro Reiten in the box. Reiten stepped up and buried the ensuing kick to make it 5-0.

Sofia Harrison was then sent off in the 67th minute for what was deemed, after review, to be a tackle that used “excessive force.” Five minutes into stoppage time, Haug scored her third goal – and Norway’s sixth – getting her head on a left-footed cross from Reiten.

Norway will hope the victory serves as a spark to the rest of their tournament. A much greater test awaits against either Spain or Japan.