{"id":34514,"date":"2026-07-13T00:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/i-used-to-watch-it-from-sidelines-erling-haaland-reflects-on-life-changing-fifa-world-cup-after-england-heartbreak-football-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:21:06","slug":"i-used-to-watch-it-from-sidelines-erling-haaland-reflects-on-life-changing-fifa-world-cup-after-england-heartbreak-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/i-used-to-watch-it-from-sidelines-erling-haaland-reflects-on-life-changing-fifa-world-cup-after-england-heartbreak-football-news\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I used to watch it from sidelines&#8217;: Erling Haaland reflects on life-changing FIFA World Cup after England heartbreak | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132350057,imgsize-373629,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/vbn-39.jpg\" alt=\"'I used to watch it from  sidelines': Erling Haaland reflects on life-changing FIFA World Cup after England heartbreak\" title=\"Erling Haaland\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Erling Haaland said Norway&#8217;s FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign has changed him as a person after the team&#8217;s run ended with a quarter-final defeat to England.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"1\"\/>Norway&#8217;s World Cup journey came to an end after a 2-1 extra-time loss to England. <!-- -->Despite the result, Haaland said playing on football&#8217;s biggest stage and representing his country was an experience he will always remember.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>&#8220;These things are surreal; I think this has changed me as a person. I think my profile has grown a bit, let&#8217;s put it that way, and&#8230; It&#8217;s hard to even process it all right now when I look back at the games, but it&#8217;s incredibly special to be part of an event like this &#8211; something I used to watch from the sidelines, and now I&#8217;m living it first-hand,&#8221; Haaland said, as per the FIFA website.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/>He also spoke about the pride he felt in Norway&#8217;s performances and the support the team received during the tournament.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>&#8220;I feel immense pride, and I&#8217;m genuinely moved when I think about how well we performed, the sense of unity back in Norway, and the positivity and joy we&#8217;ve felt both there and here,&#8221; he added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Norway made a strong start in the quarter-final in Miami and took the lead through Andreas Schjelderup. Haaland also tested England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during the opening stages.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>However, Jude Bellingham equalised in first-half stoppage time before scoring again in extra time after Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland spilled a Morgan Rogers effort into his path.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>England eventually won 2-1 to book a semi-final against defending champions Argentina, ending Norway&#8217;s best-ever FIFA World Cup campaign.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>The quarter-final was a milestone for Norway, who reached the last eight of the World Cup for the first time in their history after qualifying for the tournament for the first time since 1998.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>Despite the exit, Haaland had a productive tournament. The striker scored in all three group-stage matches and also found the net in the Round of 32 and Round of 16, finishing as Norway&#8217;s leading scorer with seven goals.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\/fifa-world-cup\/i-used-to-watch-it-from-sidelines-erling-haaland-reflects-on-life-changing-fifa-world-cup-after-england-heartbreak\/articleshow\/132349617.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erling Haaland said Norway&#8217;s FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign has changed him as a person after the team&#8217;s run ended with a quarter-final defeat to England.Norway&#8217;s World Cup journey came to an end after a 2-1 extra-time loss to England. Despite the result, Haaland said playing on football&#8217;s biggest stage and representing his country was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}