Manchester City ace Erling Haaland knows no stopping. After his talismanic brace against Denmark in their last UEFA Nations League clash, the striker was on target against Portugal for his 65th international goal.
Although it wasn't enough to keep the Norwegians from going down in Oslo, Haaland continued his hot run of form.
He added to his ever-growing list of milestones with the national team after netting against his 28th different opponent.
Erling Haaland scores, but Costa prevents a bigger night for him
Trailing 1-0 at the break from Joao Felix's early strike, Haaland brought Norway level with a scrambled finish from a set-piece in the 51st minute. Martin Odegaard whipped in a free-kick that was parried away by Diogo Costa, but Patrick Berg headed it into the City ace's path, and he tapped it home from point-blank range for 1-1.
With 22 goals in the Nations League now, he pulled further clear of the next best scorers, Cristiano Ronaldo and Aleksandar Mitrovic, both of whom are tied in second with 15 each for Portugal and Serbia, respectively, in the competition.
However, Haaland could have easily bagged more on the night. He always got into excellent positions to receive a service, but was surprisingly wasteful. In the moments when he managed to hit the broadside of the barn, Portuguese custodian Diogo Costa was on hand to parry it away, much to his chagrin.
In the first half alone, he denied the Norwegian goal-machine twice: kneeing his rusty effort out of play for a corner in the 13th minute and then parrying a header away in the 35th minute.
Interspersed between this was another chance that was blocked, as Haaland latched onto a spill-on from Costan, which his Manchester City teammate Ruben Dias jumped to intercept.
Haaland continues to build case for Ballon d'Or
The voting lines for the Ballon d'Or were closed just hours after the game. And if this was Haaland's last chance to stake a claim at the prestigious Golden Ball, he managed to do so convincingly. Sure, on any other day, his performance would have easily yielded a hat-trick, but a goal against the defending Nations League champions is no less.
No Haaland-Ronaldo matchup again
While we waited with bated breath to witness an exciting battle between two prolific goalscorers, it turns out Cristiano Ronaldo was benched the whole time in Oslo. This is the second time that two stars have come close to playing on the same turf, with the last one being in the Manchester derby back in 2022, but Ronaldo was on the bench for that one too.
Haaland and Norway continue their Nations League campaign away to Wales on Thursday, 1 October.
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