Haaland Passes Ronaldo and Zlatan With 64th Norway Goal

Erling Haaland scored twice as Norway beat Denmark 3-2 at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo on Thursday 24 September 2026, and the second of them carried him past two of the most prolific strikers international football has produced. The finish he drove home from a short-corner routine in the 74th minute was his 64th goal for Norway, reached in his 56th appearance; the pair took him from 62 to 64.

Norway had been two goals up inside 18 minutes. Oscar Bobb curled in the opener in the 14th minute after a pass from Martin Odegaard, and Haaland doubled the lead four minutes later, running on to a ball from Antonio Nusa. Denmark answered through a Mikkel Damsgaard free-kick in the 25th minute and drew level on the hour when Rasmus Hojlund headed in. Haaland settled it 14 minutes after that. The hosts finished with ten men, David Moller Wolfe dismissed for a second booking in stoppage time.

The first of Haaland's two goals had already taken him beyond the 62 international goals scored by Ronaldo Nazario for Brazil and by Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Sweden. He became Norway's leading scorer in October 2024, when he passed the 34 goals Jorgen Juve had left on the board in 1934. UEFA lists him as the Nations League's all-time top scorer with 21 goals from 16 appearances in the competition, with Aleksandar Mitrovic and Cristiano Ronaldo next on 15.

The distance is measured in matches as much as in goals. Ronaldo needed 98 caps to reach 62 and Ibrahimovic needed 122; Haaland stands on 64 after 56. Almost a third of that career total, the 21 Nations League goals, has been collected in 16 games of a competition that was not played for the first time until 2018.

Why the result matters beyond the milestone is the company Norway keep in the group. League A Group 4 also contains holders Portugal and Wales, and Portugal opened with a 1-0 win over the Welsh through Joao Felix's goal in the 22nd minute. Norway and Portugal therefore both begin on three points, and they meet in Oslo on 27 September, three days after this match. Norway arrive in the group off the best summer in their history, a first World Cup quarter-final, which England won 2-1 after extra time.

Elsewhere on the opening matchday, Cody Gakpo's added-time equaliser earned the Netherlands a 1-1 draw with Germany in Amsterdam, where Felix Nmecha had scored in the 32nd minute in Jurgen Klopp's first match in charge of the Germans. Greece won 2-1 away to Serbia.