MIAMI — Jude Bellingham does not seem to care that England keeps making things harder than they need to be. He just fixes them.
Tuesday night’s quarterfinal against Norway was another mess of a performance from Thomas Tuchel’s side. Sloppy passing. Weird lineup choices. A goalkeeper who picked the wrong moment to have his first real off game in five tournaments. And still, somehow, England is heading to the World Cup semifinals for only the fourth time in its history.
The reason is right there in the No. 10 shirt. Bellingham scored twice in a 2-1 comeback win, and those goals were just the most obvious parts of a performance that felt like one man refusing to let his team lose.
Norway had a plan. Bellingham had other ideas.
Let’s be honest about what happened before Bellingham took over. Norway was the better side for long stretches. Andreas Schjelderup gave them a lead after his cross turned into a nightmare for Jordan Pickford, who misjudged it badly. The ball ended up in England’s net in a way that will haunt Pickford for a while. He hasn’t had many of those in an England shirt, but this one was ugly.
England looked shaken. Norway looked confident. Erling Haaland was out there. It felt like an upset was brewing.
Then Bellingham decided otherwise.
Right before halftime, with Norway trying to carry that 1-0 lead into the break, Bellingham picked up the ball outside the box. He held off two defenders. He powered a shot past Orjan Nyland. Just like that, it was 1-1. The whole stadium shifted.
And in extra time, when Nyland slipped on a routine save — the kind of mistake backup keepers sometimes make when they haven’t played much — Bellingham was the first to react. He tapped in the rebound. Game over.
That’s six goals for Bellingham in this tournament. He’s right there with Mbappe and Messi in the Golden Boot race. But the stats don’t capture what this game actually was.
Tuchel’s England is still a puzzle that doesn’t quite fit
There is no good way to say this: England was not good Tuesday night. Tuchel started a center-back at right-back. He played a right-back in central midfield. He had a No. 10 stuck out on the left wing. The midfield fell apart once Declan Rice’s fitness issues became obvious, and Tuchel’s solution — bringing in Eberechi Eze — somehow made things worse. Norway started dominating possession in the second half. That should not happen to a squad with this much talent.
Djed Spence was probably England’s second-best player, and he’s a right-back playing left-back. That tells you everything about where this team is right now.
Tuchel has a lot to sort out before the semifinal. The good news for him is that he also has Bellingham, and right now that seems to be enough.
Haaland went off in tears at the end of extra time. Norway deserved more from this tournament. They made a real national moment out of this run. But they ran into a player who is operating on a different level than everyone else on the field.
Hey Jude, indeed.
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