"I don't think anyone had imagined this," said captain Martin Odegaard — and he's right. Norway lost to England in extra time on Saturday. By Monday, 100,000 people had packed central Oslo to welcome them home like conquerors.
The squad landed to a water cannon salute, attended an audience with King Harald, and then waved their way through a 1.3-kilometre open-top bus parade that took hours to complete — partly because the crowds were so dense the bus had to reverse at one point, and partly because low-hanging overhead cables forced the players to sit down mid-route. A fitting metaphor for a country that keeps running into obstacles and refuses to stop smiling.
Haaland was gone before the best bit
Erling Haaland left the celebrations early to catch a flight — his return from the US had already been delayed four hours, coach Stale Solbakken explained. That meant he missed the palace steps moment: Crown Prince Haakon on the drums, tens of thousands below, and the entire squad doing the Viking row without their most famous name.
It's hard to imagine that going down the same way without him in any other context. Here, nobody seemed to mind.
The parade eventually finished at City Hall Square, where fans had been waiting patiently long after dark. Odegaard's quote to NRK says everything about how this tournament landed back home: "The support we have received in the USA and here at home in Norway has been beyond all expectations."
The Bellingham goal still stings
Solbakken isn't letting it go quietly. He told reporters he believes the ball struck a camera cable before Jude Bellingham's equaliser in the first half of the quarter-final — the goal that shifted momentum before England eventually won 2-1 in extra time. FIFA has denied it repeatedly.
It won't change the result. But it'll linger, and it gives Norway's World Cup exit a grievance that keeps the fire alive going into qualification cycles. A team that reaches the last eight and genuinely believes they were wronged doesn't tend to get quieter.
For anyone tracking Norway's odds in future tournaments, this squad is younger than the result suggests and angrier than the celebrations let on.
