Published on 6/17/2026
The Iraqi national team launched its return to the World Cup after an absence of 40 years, with a harsh loss to Norway and its top scorer Erling Haaland 1-4 on Tuesday at Gillette Stadium, Foxboro/Boston at the conclusion of the first round of Group Nine competitions within the 2026 World Cup.
The match between Iraq and Norway produced a number of important statistics, which frame what happened during the 90 minutes between the “Vikings” and the “Mesopotamian Lions” and suggest the technical superiority in long moments of the match for Erling Haaland’s teammates.
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Historical statistics for Norway…and Haaland
Norway returned to the World Cup after an absence of 28 years with a long-awaited victory since achieving its last victory in the 1998 edition, knowing that it had spent 56 previous years without victories between the 1938 editions in France and the 1994 editions in the United States.
This is the first time Norway has scored three or more goals in one match in its history in the World Cup and European Championship (12th match).
Norway has not lost in four matches in its history in the World Cup against teams from outside Europe (it won 3 matches and tied 1).
Erling Haaland is the first player to score more than one goal in a single World Cup match for Norway.
Haaland scored both goals for Norway in the first half, giving his country the lead in the first half of a World Cup match for the first time, and the Norwegians had scored only one goal in the first half of their previous eight matches in the tournament.
Haaland scored in all of his last 11 official matches with the Norway national team, including scoring more than one goal in the last five matches. He also scored at least one goal in 17 of his last 20 official matches with the Norway national team since the beginning of 2023.
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Iraq has lost all four of its World Cup appearances, and this is its first defeat by more than one goal.
Ayman Hussein scored the second goal for Iraq in the history of its participation in the World Cup, and during the Asian Football Confederation qualifiers, he scored 12 goals, more than double any of his teammates in the national team.
Mirjas Doski won five attempts to intercept the ball in this match, the most for an Iraqi player in a World Cup match, as only two players (Moroccan Ashraf Hakimi and Egyptian Muhannad Lashin – 6 attempts each) have recorded a greater number of successful attempts so far in the tournament this year.
