England burned slowly in a furnace of Miami heat and Norwegian endeavour at the Hard Rock Stadium on a cloying, sultry Saturday night in south Florida.
They toiled and they suffered and they fell behind but just as they had done in the cauldron of the Azteca last week, they refused to wilt.
In stifling humidity that made this one of the hottest games ever played at a World Cup, England laboured and laboured and flirted with defeat. and the sweat made even their light, white shirts heavy.
But Jude Bellingham cares little for things that weary mortal men or for things that sap others of their being.
Bellingham ran through the fire and rescued England, again, when Thomas Tuchel’s side was being outclassed by Norway.
He scored once in the first half and, again, two minutes into the first period of extra time to seal a 2-1 win. His team-mates looked exhausted and beaten but he simply refused to yield.
This was his Miami heist and it took England to a World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Jude Bellingham was England’s hero once again as his brace fired them into the semi-finals
He was clever to follow in a long-range strike and reacted quickest when the ball was spilled
Bellingham now has six goals in this World Cup and, amid his other heroics, he is in the thick of the race for the Golden Boot. His single-handed defiance was magnificent. It said: Fire, walk with me.
After the altitude test of their last-16 tie against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium last weekend this was a different kind of trial but England showed again that they are not lacking for fortitude.
They did not play well. They have not played well for most of this tournament but they limited Erling Haaland’s contribution to a minimum and they keep finding a way to win.
They are exorcising their ghosts as they travel on this odyssey through the USA and Mexico.
In Mexico City, England went to the Azteca Stadium where Diego Maradona had scored the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against them in 1986 and wiped away its pain with the country’s greatest victory on foreign soil, a 3-2 victory at altitude, with 10 men, in front of a hostile, impassioned crowd.
In Miami, England faced an opponent whose victory over them in Oslo in a World Cup qualifier in 1981 had spawned one of the most replayed passages of football commentary ever. England has spent 45 years being the punchline for somebody else’s joke and now we can smile at it more easily.
It may not have quite the same ring to it but it is worth a riposte after all those decades: Edvard Munch, Henrik Ibsen, the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, Roald Amundsen, Magnus Carlsen, A-ha, John Arne Riise, the Northern Lights, the Viking Row, Odin, Thor, Loki and Frigg… your boys took a hell of a beating.
Tuchel restored John Stones to the centre of England’s defence alongside Marc Guehi, meaning that Haaland was being marshalled by two Manchester City team-mates, with a third, Nico O’Reilly, at left back. They knew Haaland’s strengths. Haaland knew their weaknesses.
England dominated possession in the early stages and fed the ball wide to Noni Madueke, who was finding space on the England right. Madueke, in the side instead of Bukayo Saka, did not make the best use of it. Anthony Gordon, on the other flank, looked more of a threat.
Andreas Schjelderup stunned England by scoring a stunning opening goal from long distance
Jordan Pickford could only watch as Schjelderup’s cross clipped the post and flew into the net
England’s only half chance of the first quarter came right before the hydration break, when Madueke brought a long ball down expertly and drove it across goal. O’Reilly got his boot to it but could not direct it towards goal with any power and it was hacked away.
For once, the hydration break felt like necessity, not just an advertising opportunity. England’s players took bottles of fluids and wrapped iced towels round their necks. Seconds after the restart, Bellingham won a free kick on the edge of the Norway area. Kane blazed it high over the bar.
England suffered their first alarm 12 minutes before the interval when Stones was caught dawdling on the ball by Haaland inside the England area. The ball ran away from the Norway striker and Jordan Pickford claimed it but England’s escape only encouraged their opponents.
A minute later, Julian Ryerson crossed from the right and even though Haaland rose majestically to meet it, he could only direct his header straight at Pickford. There were gasps of awe from the crowd at the height of Haaland’s leap.
Norway were suddenly dominant. Kane lost the ball in the middle of the field and even though he claimed he had been fouled from behind, referee Clement Turpin waved play on. It reached Andreas Schjelderup on the left and he ran at Ezri Konsa before lashing the ball across goal.
It may have been intended as a cross or as a shot but the effect was the same. It crashed against the inside of the far post and nestled in the net.
England reeled. Alexander Sorloth lashed a shot just over the bar and just when it seemed as if the game might get away from them completely, England conjured an equaliser in added time at the end of the half that started with a slice of luck when a Norway goal kick hit an overhead camera and fell to Elliot Anderson.
Play should have been called back but it wasn’t. The ball was moved to Anthony Gordon.
He played a ball across the face of the area and Bellingham ran on to it, wrong-footing his marker and drifting left before drilling a low shot past Orjan Nyland. It was a brilliant, clinical finish, Bellingham’s latest feat of derring-do at this tournament. It was his fifth goal of this World Cup.
Kane had a goal ruled out for offside in the last seconds of the half but Tuchel was not happy with what he had seen and at half time, he replaced Madueke with Saka and brought Eberechi Eze on in place of Declan Rice, who had been struggling with illness all week. Sitting on the bench, Rice looked hollow-eyed.
Norway thought they had regained the lead when Torbjorn Heggem bundled a shot over the line from a corner 12 minutes after the interval but even though England’s defending had been poor, they escaped. VAR summoned the referee to look at a push by Haaland on Elliot Anderson just before the corner was taken and the strike was ruled out.
Bellingham was surrounded by four Norway players but found the net brilliantly to make it 1-1
England fans across the country, both in the US and in England, celebrated Bellingham’s goals
Thomas Tuchel was mobbed in celebration as a semi-final in Atlanta awaits on Wednesday
England escaped again 15 minutes from the end of normal time. They failed to clear a corner and when the ball was played back into the box, David Moller Wolfe looped a header over Pickford. Pickford was beaten but the ball cannoned against the face of the crossbar and was scrambled to safety.
Reece James came on for Anthony Gordon but none of Tuchel’s substitutions worked.
England were being outclassed. Norway had complete control of the game and England offered next to no threat going forward. In the stands, the Norway fans did the Viking Row and began to party.
Finally, four minutes from time, Saka made a brilliant run to the byline and pushed a ball across goal. Kane and Eze tried to apply the finishing touch but the ball was hoofed into touch before they could reach it.
No sooner had extra time begun than England grabbed an unlikely lead. Morgan Rogers unleashed a shot from outside the area and Nyland spilled it. Bellingham reacted fastest, got to the loose ball and rammed it over the line. It was more than England deserved.
England were awarded a penalty when Djed Spence was brought down but the referee was told to review it and decided the Spurs defender had initiated the contact.
Nyland saved well from Spence and then Saka and then England withstood a Norway siege. Bellingham was substituted near the end, his job done.
