Erling Haaland scored one goal as Norway beat Moldova 5-0 in their opening World Cup qualifier in the European zone. The Scandinavians topped Group I with the win, and Israel will face Estonia later today, BTA reported.
Norway last played at the World Cup in 1998, two years before Haaland's birthday. The Manchester City forward scored his second goal against Moldova and now has 39 in 40 games for his country. Borussia Dortmund defender Julian Ryerson opened the scoring five minutes into the match in Chisinau, with Tello Højsgaard, Alexander Sorlot and Aaron Donnum also scoring.
Holland has already won the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup with Manchester City, but has yet to play in a major tournament with his national team. He missed part of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers due to injury, while Norway finished third in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
Montenegro started their campaign with a 3-1 win over Gibraltar, but victory did not come easily. Dan Bent opened the scoring for the visitors in the 13th minute, but Stevan Jovetić, Marco Tucci and Adam Marušić turned things around for the Montenegrins. The Czech Republic and the Faroe Islands are in the same group.
The Republic of North Macedonia won 3-0 away against Liechtenstein in a match from Group "J" of the World Cup qualifiers. Aleksandar Trajkovski opened the scoring in the seventh minute, and Visar Musliu also scored three minutes before the end of regular time in the first half.
Bojan Miovski scored the classic victory for the Macedonians in the 84th minute. Former defender of Bulgarian Levski and Slavia Gjoko Zajkov was a starter in the Republic of North Macedonia squad and remained on the field throughout the match. Later tonight in the match between Wales and Kazakhstan, which is from the same qualifying group.