Wales end barren run as Haaland goes missing

A slow start, then chaos

Oscar Bobb put Norway ahead in the first half and, for a spell, it looked like a comfortable night for the visitors. Daniel James dragged Wales level before the break, and the game was finely poised heading into the second 45.

It lasted all of 17 seconds. Torbjørn Heggem fouled James straight from the restart and was shown a straight red, leaving Norway to play the rest of the match with ten men in a Nations League League A Group 4 fixture that suddenly tilted hard in Wales' favour.

Neco Williams takes over

With Norway down to ten, Wales didn't sit back and admire the numerical edge, they used it. Neco Williams was the standout figure in the second half, and the Guardian's report on the game credited him as the man who turned Wales' advantage into an actual winner.

The final whistle confirmed a 2-1 win, Wales' first victory of 2026 in a competitive fixture, and exactly the kind of result a team starved of good news needed heading into the next international window.

Haaland goes missing

The other story for Norway was what didn't happen. Erling Haaland barely left a mark on the game, anonymous for long stretches as Wales' ten-man advantage reshaped the second half. For a striker used to deciding these nights himself, a quiet one in Cardiff stood out.

What it means for Wales

For Wales, the result is less about Haaland's off night and more about finally getting a result to show for a difficult year. A home win over a Norway side built around the reigning Premier League top scorer, even with the red card as a factor, is the sort of result that can shift a squad's mood heading into the next set of fixtures.