Erling Haaland and his team-mates touched down back in Norway to a heroes’ welcome after their World Cup exploits – with the forward curiously carrying a stuffed raccoon in his luggage.
The Norwegian team landed at Oslo Airport on Monday afternoon after travelling home following their 2-1 extra-time defeat by England in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Norway’s dream run was ended by a Jude Bellingham double, with star man Haaland forced to watch the closing stages from the bench after being forced off before the second period of extra-time.
Haaland had proved to be one of the stars of the tournament, scoring seven goals in five matches.
The Manchester City forward had impressively delivered under high expectations to help Norway achieve their best World Cup performance to date, having returned to the tournament for the first time since 1998.
Their performance was celebrated upon their arrival, with fire engines spraying water over their plane to help form a rainbow.
Erling Haaland was seen arriving back in Norway carrying a Dolce & Gabbana bag over one shoulder and a stuffed raccoon in his left hand
The Norway star and his team-mates were greeted by King Harald at the Royal Palace in Oslo
Thousands of fans lined the streets to celebrate Norway’s best ever World Cup performance
Haaland was pictured emerging from the plane carrying a Dolce & Gabbana bag over one shoulder, while carrying a stuffed raccoon in his left hand.
The stuffed raccoon, Haaland’s unusual souvenir from the World Cup, was installed onto a wooden base and saw its paws around an empty bottle of Greenall’s gin.
Norway boss Stale Solbakken was seen waving as he made his way down the steps upon their arrival home.
The Norwegian team were then received by King Harald and Queen Sonja at the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Haaland was seen shaking hands with the King.
The squad are then expected to attend a public celebration at Slottsplassen, a square in the city of Oslo.
Thousands of fans have already gathered in the square to welcome them home following the World Cup.
Fans and the team are expected to perform the Viking Row, the rowing celebration which has become a vital feature of their World Cup campaign.
Norway boss Stale Solbakken waves after Norway touched down at Oslo airport on Monday
Fire engines sprayed water over the aircraft to form a rainbow to celebrate the team’s run
One fan holds up a banner in tribute to Haaland as fans waited for a public celebration
Norway saw their World Cup dream ended by England at the quarter-final stage
The squad will then travel by an open top bus through the capital city.
The celebrations were delayed after Norway’s chartered flight took off later than originally planned from Florida.
England ended Norway’s campaign with a 2-1 extra-time victory in Miami, with Bellingham scoring twice to overturn Andreas Schjelderup’s first-half opener and send England into the semi-finals.
However, the result was not without controversy. Questions were raised over Bellingham’s equaliser, with some suggesting the ball may have struck an overhead camera wire in the build-up.
Norway were also left frustrated when a second-half goal was ruled out. Referees adjudged Haaland to have pushed Elliot Anderson inside the penalty area before the resulting corner was taken, leading to the effort being chalked off.
New evidence – direct from the World Cup stadium spidercam – has proved Bellingham’s controversial first goal against Norway was right to stand.
Norway had insisted that a goal kick from their goalkeeper Orjan Nyland struck one of the mid-air cables that supports the overhead spidercam before falling to England’s Elliot Anderson, who went on to pass to Anthony Gordon to set up Bellingham’s goal.
That scenario should have seen play stopped and the goal disallowed. But FIFA has reviewed videos from various angles and Daily Mail Sport has seen footage which shows a natural flight path of the ball.
Jude Bellingham scored twice to send England through against Norway at the weekend
Footage of the goalkeeper’s kick leading to Jude Bellingham’s controversial goal is from the Spidercam itself – it would have shaken had a cable been struck
The acceleration magnitude and the gyroscope magnitude – rotations per minute – did not change while the ball was in mid-air
And in video taken directly from the spidercam itself, there is no ‘wobble’ in the footage, showing that the ball had no impact with any cables.
While that angle does appear to show a quick drop in the ball, side-on footage seen by the Daily Mail proves the ball instead had a smooth arc and dipped naturally. Officials have even reviewed colour-contrasted image to check further and there is no cable close to the ball.
A sensor inside the ball reveals it was only touched three times in the sequence – the goal kick, by Anderson, and then on the ground. The newly-uncovered data from the ball also shows there was no change in the rotation of it.
Had the ball struck a camera cable, there would have been another spike on the graph and a change in rotation.
Norway had argued the failure to stop the game was ‘ridiculous’. Midfielder Sander Berge said: ‘It’s ridiculous, this one with the wire, 2-1 says itself – there are small margins and we know which way it went.’
Manager Solbakken said: ‘Many on the bench reacted immediately. I was not one of them, but many of them saw it.
‘He [the referee] says that he didn’t see it himself and that he didn’t get any message that it actually happened.
‘That’s a good explanation and since FIFA says there was no touch and there was no signal from the chip of the ball, then he can’t do anything about it. The ball fell straight down, right in front of the bench, so it did touch it.
‘I can’t say anything about that because if there was no sound from the chip, what can I say?
‘The ball dropped down straight from heaven, says everyone – including the goalie, including the guy who was going to receive the ball. I think it was pretty clear that it did. It was a strange thing.’
