The Official Norway Match Thread (Sponsored by Bjørge Lillelien "for all "your boys took a hell of a beating" needs")

Having battled through adversity to overcome Mexico on their own patch on Monday morning, England now look to reach the semi-finals with a win against a difficult Norway side tonight.

Monday's game was an epic, England soaking up the initial pressure from the home side who were backed by a raucous crowd in the Azteca, before Bellingham unleashed a quick one two punch to puncture the atmosphere just after the half hour. But England can never seem to do things the easy way, a Mexican goal just before the break, and a justifiable red card for Quansah just after, left things looking dicey. Step forward Anthony Gordon, winning the ten men a penalty duly dispatched by Harry Kane to leave things looking bright again for a mere eight minutes, before hero became VAR villain by conceding a soft penalty to reignite Mexican hope.

The last 20 minutes (plus a further 11 additional) was a tough watch from an England perspective, wave after wave of green shirts hammering at the door of a resolute defence, our only respite being long balls looking for a loan runner. Both sides brought on a plethora of subs to boost their attacking and defensive ambitions respectively, Stones and Burn appearing everywhere in an ultimately successful bid to shut out the hosts and take England through to the quarters. Phew.

In a fantastic show of FIFA consistency, Quansah has now been banned for an extra game which means he's done unless we reach the final. Djed Spence put in a hugely improved shift from his Panamanian outing and could deputise tonight in the troublesome right back area, although Reece James has apparently trained this week and may return. Konsah also has a hamstring issue and Declan Rice has picked up some sort of bug and is still carrying various injuries. Consequently, there may be a few changes to our line-up tonight against the Norwegians.

Our opponents, and extreme dark horses for the tournament, have had a great World Cup so far. Iraq and Senegal were seen off in the groups, Haaland netting a brace in each, before a hugely reshuffled side took a beating from France in the final group game, the 1-4 scoreline not doing justice to the Norwegian performance. Ivory Coast were seen off 2-1 in the Round of 32, Haaland the hero again with a late winner, before an underwhelming Brazilian side was dispatched last time out by the same score, Haaland with another brace to leave him on a frankly ludicrous 62 goals from just 54 caps. He's an absolute machine.

Haaland is not the only quality in the Norway side, Martin Ødegaard, Alexander Sørloth and Leo Østigård show that there's a strong spine throughout the Scandinavian side, as well as a solid monopoly on the letter "Ø".

The head to head has us leading by seven wins to two, but this doesn't tell the whole story. Four of those results came way back when, before Norway developed as a footballing nation that's punching well above its weight in population terms. Of the seven fixtures since 1981, we've won just the last two, both 1-0 in friendlies and suffered a couple of horrible defeats.

For the highlights we go back to a time when I wasn't even yet a twinkle in my Dad's eye, September 1980 and a 4-0 World Cup qualifier win at Wembley, Terry McDermott with a great opening volley as part of his brace. Paul Mariner gets a cracker too.

There's no doubt that tonight will not be easy, our battered defensive line-up is limping through each round, although Bellingham and Kane find themselves in fine form. Clearly the danger will come in large part from Haaland, who can appear as though he's not even playing before clinically dispatching any chance that comes his way. Our defence should have greater knowledge of his abilities than other sides, although whether you can prevent him scoring given his phenomenal goalscoring rate is another question ,and one that may decide the outcome.

Thankfully tonight is a more amenable kick-off time that lends itself to having a pre-match beer or two. My drinking day starts at a friend's BBQ in less than half an hour, followed by a supplementary BBQ at mine this evening for some more mates. If this is how our World Cup journey ends, it should be through a haze of Leffe and grilled meats. And should it continue past tonight, a haze of Leffe and grilled meats will be a fine accompaniment.

Enjoy the game, and...

COME ON ENGLAND!!!