Erling Haaland matches Lionel Messi’s World Cup single-game feat but falls short of Cristiano Ronaldo’s mark

Erling Haaland has fully embraced his role as the talisman for Norway as the nation makes its triumphant return to the World Cup after a 28-year hiatus. With a stellar brace in his tournament debut against Iraq, the Manchester City superstar instantly equaled Lionel Messi’s career-high for goals in a single World Cup match, though he fell just short of matching Cristiano Ronaldo’s personal benchmark.

Norway opened the scoring in the 29th minute when David Moller Wolfe delivered an absolute dime of a cross, allowing Haaland to drift into space and bury his first career World Cup goal. Then, in the 43rd minute, Haaland’s relentless high press forced a calamitous mistake; after intercepting a sloppy backpass from Zaid Tahseen, he intercepted a desperate clearing attempt from goalkeeper Jalal Hassan to easily secure his first-half brace.

By netting twice against Iraq, Haaland drew level with Messi’s single-game World Cup scoring ceiling. Despite logging 26 career appearances on the world stage for Argentina and sitting as one of the tournament’s most prolific icons with 13 total goals, the legendary playmaker has surprisingly never surpassed two goals in a single World Cup fixture.

Across his five tournament appearances, Messi has hit that two-goal limit exactly twice. His first World Cup brace came during a breathless 3-2 group-stage victory over Nigeria in 2014, while his second arrived on the grandest stage of all in the 2022 final against France, where he converted an early penalty before adding a crucial extra-time strike.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup goal mark

While Cristiano Ronaldo holds the crown as the most prolific goalscorer in soccer history with 970 career tallies, his World Cup production stands at a relatively modest eight goals in 22 appearances. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped the Portuguese icon from carving out his own unique piece of tournament history.

Ronaldo’s personal single-game high stands at three, courtesy of a legendary hat trick against rivals Spain in a thrilling 3-3 group-stage draw in 2018. With that iconic performance, Ronaldo etched his name into the record books as the oldest player to ever score a World Cup hat trick, doing so at 33 years and 130 days old.