As Norway and England face-off at the 2026 FIFA World Cup tonight, we have an interesting Borussia Dortmund reunion on the cards as former teammates Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland go up against each other.
Both players have been instrumental in their respective nations getting thus far in the competition, bagging a couple of vital goals along the way and will be looked upon for more heroics in today's high-stakes clash at the Miami Gardens.
Bellingham, Haaland reunite
Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland shared the dressing room at Borussia Dortmund for two-and-a-half years until Haaland's transfer to Manchester City in 2022. A year later, Bellingham also moved on, joining Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Since they've gone their separate ways, the players have met in the Champions League: in 2022 as Dortmund and City clashed in the group stages and multiple times between 2023 and 2026 when the Sky Blues often drew Madrid.
But this will be the first time that Bellingham and Haaland lock horns on the international stage and it couldn't have come at a bigger stage than this as the winner gets a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
Bellingham vs Haaland, the stats
At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Erling Haaland has been all the rage with his blistering exploits that has yielded seven goals so far, including a talismanic brace against Brazil in the last round as Norway won 2-1. In fact, his tally is bettered only by Argentina's Lionel Messi and France's Kylian Mbappe (8 each).
As for Bellingham, the Los Blancos star has struck four times for England. In the last round against Mexico, he even struck a quickfire first-half brace that gave his team a two-goal cushion by 39 minutes. Besides, he's also bagged an assist, setting up Harry Kane for their second goal against Panama just moments after breaking the deadlock.
Julian Ryerson, the current BVB sensation
Amid the nostalgia surrounding two of Dortmund's former players going up against each other, let's not forget that we have a current member of the BVB squad competing too as Julian Ryerson could start for Norway again following a strong show against Brazil.
The full-back was reinstated back into their lineup for the crunch Round of 16 clash against the Canaries after watching two games from the bench. Ryerson had picked up a knock in their second group match against Senegal which prompted him to go off early into the kick-off.
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