Manchester City’s goal machine Erling Haaland will make his World Cup debut against Iraq in Boston on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: AP

Human goal machine Erling Haaland will seek to get his World Cup account up and running ​immediately when Norway takes on Iraq on Tuesday to end the country’s nearly ‌three-decade absence from football’s elite tournament.

Haaland will ⁠come face to face with possibly his most likely challenger for that accolade - Kylian Mbappe - when Norway faces France in their final Group I game on June 26.

Before ​then, Iraq and Senegal await ‌with Tuesday’s encounter with the Lions of Mesopotamia in Boston representing Norway’s first match at a World Cup since 1998, when it lost to Italy in the round of 16. That defeat was ‌followed by a spectacular fall from grace for a ​team that had peaked as the world’s second-best in FIFA’s rankings earlier in the 1990s.

Now, having scored the ⁠most goals of any European team during the World Cup qualifiers - Haaland’s partner in attack Alexander Sorloth bagged five and Thelo Aasgaard got ‌four - Norway could challenge France for top spot in Group I.

Standing in its way on Tuesday is an Iraq side whose route to Boston was via an exhausting 21-match qualifying campaign that - despite travel disruption caused by the U.S. and Israeli war with neighbouring Iran - ended with victory over Bolivia in the intercontinental playoffs in ‌ Mexico.

Iraq coach Graham Arnold led his native Australia to the round of 16 ​at the last World Cup in Qatar where it was defeated by eventual champion Argentina.

Striker Aymen Hussein, who scored ⁠the goal that qualified Iraq for the finals, will be seeking to ⁠steal some of Haaland’s limelight.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Published on Jun 16, 2026