World Cup Results, 5 July: Haaland Buries Brazil, England Cling On at the Azteca

There are nights at a World Cup when the ground seems to shift under the whole tournament, and Sunday was one of them. In the space of a few hours the five-time champions were gone, a nation that had never reached a World Cup quarter-final in its history was dancing, and the last side from these islands was hanging on with ten men in the most hostile arena football has to offer. If you switched off early, you missed the round of 16 rearranging the entire top of the draw. Here, for the Irish neutral catching up over a morning coffee, is how the drama unfolded.

Haaland’s Thunder, Brazil’s Silence

For seventy-eight minutes it looked like the kind of game Brazil win in their sleep — right up until Erling Haaland decided otherwise. Norway beat Brazil 2–1, and they did it the way legends are made: Haaland rising to head home in the 79th minute from a Schjelderup delivery, then returning in the 90th to settle it. Neymar’s stoppage-time penalty was nothing more than a consolation, a full stop on an era rather than a lifeline. Cast your mind back to the 13th minute, too, when Bruno Guimarães stepped up from the spot and Ørjan Nyland guessed right — the save that, in hindsight, held the door open for everything that followed.

This was Brazil’s earliest World Cup exit since 1990, and it carried the weight of history. The five-time champions, so often the team every neutral half-expects to be there at the death, were beaten by a Norwegian side playing with the fearlessness of a team that had nothing to lose and a No. 9 who has spent his career making the impossible look routine. "This is just an insane day. It’s one of the most insane days in Norwegian history," Haaland said afterwards — and for once the hyperbole felt earned.

Norway’s First Quarter-Final

Understand what this means for Norway. They have never, in any of their previous World Cup appearances, reached a quarter-final. Now they are through to the last eight, and they have done it by eliminating one of the sport’s aristocrats. Manager Ståle Solbakken, ever the pragmatist, played it down: “I never thought about it. I just thought that we needed to proceed from the group stage.” His modesty only sharpens the achievement. Norway are shortening fast in the outright market on the back of it, and the wider betting picture is laid out on our World Cup 2026 odds page.

For Brazil, the reckoning begins. Neymar hinted his international career may be over, while Carlo Ancelotti — whose first World Cup in charge ended in the round of 16 — struck a defiant note. "You just have to deal with it, deal with the sadness and the taste of defeat. I am very much used to this and we will handle this. We will use it as fuel going forward," he said, confirming he will stay on to build what he called a new cycle.

Bellingham’s 90 Seconds at the Azteca

If Norway’s win was a thunderclap, England’s was a war of attrition — and for the Irish neutral, it was the result that keeps a familiar shirt in the tournament. England beat Mexico 3–2 at the Estadio Azteca, and they did it against history itself: no visiting side had ever beaten Mexico in a World Cup match at that ground across ten previous attempts. Jude Bellingham broke the game open with a brace inside 90 seconds — the 36th and 38th minutes — before Harry Kane’s 60th-minute penalty gave England a cushion they would badly need.

Because this being England, nothing is ever simple. Jarell Quansah was sent off in the 54th minute for a studs-up challenge, reduced to ten men for more than half an hour in stifling heat, and Mexico threw everything at them. Quiñones had already pulled one back before the break, and Raúl Jiménez’s 69th-minute penalty set up a grandstand finish. But Tuchel’s side, unbeaten now across a long competitive run, dug in and saw it out. "This is probably one of the biggest England wins in a while, probably the biggest one I can remember as a fan or player. The best night of my England career," said Bellingham — and given the setting, few would argue.

What It Means for the Bracket

The knockout picture is now dramatically clearer, and the quarter-finals are taking a thrilling shape. England’s reward for surviving the Azteca is a last-eight tie against Haaland’s Norway on 11 July in Miami — a genuine heavyweight collision and, for Irish viewers, the one to circle. In the other confirmed quarter-final, Morocco meet France in Foxborough on 9 July. Four round-of-16 ties still remain to be settled across Monday and Tuesday: Portugal against Spain and the USA against Belgium today, then Argentina against Egypt and Switzerland against Colombia tomorrow.

For the neutral in Ireland, the tournament has quietly delivered a gift. With the Republic absent and Scotland long gone, England are the last British-Irish side standing — and every one of these matches is free-to-air on RTÉ, so there is no excuse not to follow the run-in. My honest steer is to enjoy the reshaped bracket for the drama first and the betting second; if you do fancy a play on the quarter-finals, our daily predictions hub tracks how the models read each tie, and the Irish-licensed brands such as ZotaBet and BetiBet have been pricing the outright market in euro and familiar fractional odds all week. Whatever you stake, stake it responsibly — our responsible betting guide is a two-minute read worth having.