Haaland double leads Norway past Iraq in World Cup opener

Aymen Hussein gave Iraq a brief lift in Boston, then watched the night unravel around him. He scored the equalizer in the 39th minute, only to finish the match by putting the ball into his own net in stoppage time as Norway surged to a 4-1 victory and opened Group I with authority.

The match at Boston Stadium on June 16, 2026, was shaped early by Erling Haaland, who struck in the 29th minute to put Norway ahead before Hussein answered for Iraq 10 minutes later. Haaland restored Norway’s advantage just before the break, and the two first-half goals framed a contest that quickly became less about control than about nerve.

Norway broke it open after halftime. Leo Østigård made it 3-1 in the 76th minute, and Hussein’s own goal in the 90th minute plus six sealed a result that felt increasingly harsh on the Iraq forward. For Hussein, the evening moved from rescue act to rueful ending in the space of 57 minutes, a reversal that captured how fast tournament football can turn on one touch.

The result carried weight beyond the scoreline. FIFA had noted before kickoff that both Iraq and Norway were back on the World Cup stage after long absences, with Iraq returning to the finals for the first time in 40 years. Norway also arrived with serious expectations attached to Haaland, described by FIFA as the team’s leading attacking reference in the tournament.

Group I now looks unforgiving from the start. France and Senegal are the other teams in the section, which makes Norway’s opening three points especially valuable and leaves Iraq with immediate ground to make up. The pre-match talk had centered on names such as Zidane Iqbal, Ibrahim Bayesh, Haaland and Alexander Sørloth, but the decisive storyline belonged to Hussein’s brutal swing from scorer to own-goal victim. In a group this tight, that kind of night can define the tone of everything that follows.