Haaland + Serlot: Father and son renew their relationship at the World Cup in the United States after 32 years

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Norway beats Estonia 4-0, leading Italy by 3 points and a 17-goal difference. As long as Italy does not lose by 9 goals or more in the final away game, it will enter the World Cup for the first time since the 1998 World Cup. According to pre-match calculations by the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics, as long as Norway defeats Estonia, even if they only win one goal, their probability of qualifying for the World Cup will be as high as 99.9%.

Haaland and Serlott took a photo in the locker room after the game.

It has been 27 years since the 1998 World Cup. Most of the players in the current Norwegian team were not born yet. But it seems destined that the current coach Solbakken happened to have participated in the 1998 World Cup as a player. This may be the only direct link that the current Norwegian team has to the past, but Solbakken wants to break this link: "We are tired of talking about this, so we need to participate in a major competition again. We have not participated in a major competition in 25 years, and it is time."

The last time Norway participated in an intercontinental competition was the 2000 European Cup, which was also the last peak of Solbakken's player era. At that European Cup, he only played in the third group match against Slovenia due to injury. The Norwegian team was eliminated in the group, and the 32-year-old Solbakken also retired from the national team. In 2001, Solbakken suffered a heart attack while training at the Copenhagen club. His heart stopped beating for nearly 7 minutes and he was in a coma for 30 hours. "He was clinically dead at the time." The team doctor who saved him said, "It's a miracle that he survived." Soon after, on the doctor's advice, Solbakken announced his retirement.

Solbakken faced Italy in the 1998 World Cup, and Vieri scored the only goal of the game. That was also the last time the Norwegian team participated in the World Cup.

In fact, today's Norway's "golden generation" is not only coach Solbakken who has an intersection with the World Cup. Haaland and Thurlot, who scored two goals respectively in this game, their fathers Alfie Haaland (defender) and Gran Thurlot (forward) participated in the 1994 World Cup together during their playing days - 32 years later, their next generation will join forces to participate in the World Cup also held in the United States. However, it is a little regrettable that the old Haaland played in the first two group matches, while the old Thurlot only got the opportunity in the third game. The two happened to not be on the court at the same time.

It is also worth mentioning that Norway and Italy were in the same group in the 1994 World Cup. In the second round, Italy defeated Norway 1-0. After three rounds, both teams, Ireland and Mexico both had 4 points. In the end, Italy beat Norway and qualified third in the better group. In the 1998 World Cup, Norway defeated Brazil in the final round of the group to qualify, but lost to Italy 0-1 in the round of 16 and was eliminated. If Norway can finally qualify ahead of Italy in the world preliminaries this time, it will be considered as revenge for their fathers.

Left: Glen Thurlot; Right: Alfie Haaland