Norway’s star striker Erling Haaland put an impressive performance in his opening World Cup match against Iraq, and it gave him a boost on several markets.
Golden Ball Odds
Haaland's odds rose to 8% on the Golden Ball Winner market.
Golden Boot Odds
Haaland also earned a jump on the Golden Boot Winner market to a price of 11%.
However, the win over Iraq didn’t make much of a dent for his team on the World Cup Winner market. Norway is currently ranked 10th at a price of 2.6%.
Norway vs. Iraq
Haaland made quite a splash in his opening match scoring two goals in Norway's 4-1 win over Iraq. His two goals put him in contention to be one of the tournament's top scorers.
The BBC reports Haaland only had 11 touches in the first half, but he made good use of them to move the ball and score his first goal 29 minutes into the match.
Haaland picked up his second goal after a mistake from Iraq goalkeeper Jalal Hassan, who failed to deal with a weak backpass and only succeeded in launching the ball into his own net.
Haaland came close to a third late in the match, but was denied by a block from Hassan after pouncing on another loose pass, while his looping header in stoppage time was bundled behind by Iraq's Aymen Hussein.
BBC One commentator Stephen Warnock said about the striker, “One thing you know is that guy Haaland will find it, he will do everything he can to get to the end of it. A simple finish for a man of his quality. It just had to be him.”
Warnock added that Haaland could be the “difference maker” to Norway’s competitiveness in this year’s World Cup journey.
Haaland remains humble
If it feels like he should be higher on the markets with such an impressive opening start, Haaland doesn’t exactly agree. Even with an impressive two goal start to his World Cup run, the Norweigian had some humbling words about his performance so far.
ESPN reported that Haaland downplayed his own performance and praised several of the tournament's other top scorers. France's Kylian Mbappé has scored 42 goals this season for Real Madrid and France, including 25 in LaLiga and 15 in the Champions League, putting him four ahead of Haaland's 38. Haaland also gave props to England's Harry Kane, who has scored 51 goals across 51 matches this season for Bayern Munich and England.
“I would say I’m up there,” Haaland said. “I don’t think I scored the most goal this season, so statistically no.”
Teammate Patrick Berg did the bragging for Haaland calling him “the best striker in world football and you can see today the way he worked for us, not just with the ball but also without the ball was magnificent.”
Traders rewarded Haaland's strong start, but Mbappé, Kane, and Messi all remain ahead of him in both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot markets. He'll likely need to see more performances like this before moving into the top tier of contenders.
The takeaway:
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