📈 Haaland adds to his insane international record with latest strike | OneFootball

Norwegian great Erling Haaland just cannot stop scoring, with the Man City star putting his country on course for a third appearance in the knockout stages of a World Cup.

It was a frustrating opening 45 minutes for Haaland despite Norway owning a one-goal lead at the break, with the 25-year-old failing to find the back of the net when he couldn't get the better of Édouard Mendy.

But like he has so many times before for club and country, Haaland sprung to life after the interval, completing a brace with goals in the 48th and 58th minutes on either side of a failed lifeline strike by Ismaïla Sarr.

Haaland, who now has smashed a ludicrous 59 goals in 52 caps for Norway, continues to add his name alongside some of the best the game has ever witnessed, while also becoming the all-time leading goalscorer at a men's World Cup for his country, passing Kjetil Rekdal, who scored one goal each at USA '94 and France '98.

The Leeds-born man has now become just the sixth player in World Cup history to net multiple goals in his first two appearances, joining Argentina's Guillermo Stabile, Hungary's Sándor Kocsis, France's Just Fontaine, Poland's Grzegorz Lato, and current England star Harry Kane.

Haaland has also scored at least two goals in each of his last six competitive matches for Norway (per StatMuse), while netting in each of his last 12 competitive appearances for Norway, while scoring at least one goal in 18 of his last 21 competitive national team games (per Opta).

And if that wasn't enough, he can also lay claim to the best goal/match ratio by any player with 50+ international goals in the last 100 years (also per StatMuse).

With a pending clash against Kylian Mbappé and France still to come to see who ends with control of Group I, and both players now sitting on four goals and one shy of tournament-leader Lionel Messi, this is the Golden Boot race we had all hoped for.

📸 ANGELA WEISS - AFP or licensors