Jude Bellingham scored twice against Norway on Friday to send England to the World Cup semifinals, and the Maradona comparison everyone has been tiptoeing around is no longer a stretch — it’s a historical record.
According to NBC Sports, Bellingham is now the first player since Diego Maradona in 1986 to score a brace in consecutive World Cup knockout rounds. Maradona did it against England in the quarterfinals (the Hand of God, the Goal of the Century), then Belgium in the semifinals. Bellingham did it against Mexico in the round of 16, then Norway. The poetic cruelty writes itself: Maradona’s signature tournament moment was scoring two against England. Forty years later, an Englishman is the one doing it.
https://x.com/Vera_RMCF/status/2076090399584911840
The Norway match was not a performance worth framing. England surrendered a goal before halftime when a mishit Norwegian cross looped over Jordan Pickford, spent most of the second half unable to manufacture a clear chance, and needed extra time to outlast a side that had come in with real momentum. Thomas Tuchel said after the match that the result was “fantastic” but he was “not happy with the performance.” That’s a politic way of saying his team was outplayed for long stretches and Bellingham bailed them out — twice.
The equalizer came at 45+2 on an Anthony Gordon cutback. Bellingham shifted to his right foot and fired low past the goalkeeper. The winner arrived in the 93rd minute of extra time: Morgan Rogers’ shot was spilled by the Norwegian keeper, and Bellingham was already there. Six goals in six World Cup matches. He’s now level with Harry Kane at the top of England’s scoring charts and joins Kane and Gary Lineker as the only England men’s players to score five or more goals in a single World Cup.
I watched that second goal three times and what strikes me isn’t the technique — it’s the placement. Bellingham doesn’t react to the rebound so much as anticipate it. He was already moving to that spot before Rogers shot.
OptaJoe noted that Bellingham, at 23 years and 12 days old, is the second-youngest player to score two-plus goals in successive World Cup knockout games. Only Pelé was younger — 17, in 1958. That’s the company we’re discussing now. Not “promising English midfielder.” Pelé. Maradona. That lineage.
The counterargument is that England’s performances have been ragged enough that Bellingham’s heroics look bigger against the backdrop. Fair. Tuchel’s side has not dominated this tournament the way Argentina or France did in prior cycles. But the case for Bellingham as the tournament’s best player doesn’t rest on England being good — it rests on him being the reason England is still here. Those are different arguments, and only one of them holds up.
England’s trip to the Azteca was supposed to be the story of this knockout run. Instead the story is a 23-year-old doing something only two players in history have done. Argentina waits on Wednesday.
Maradona’s consecutive braces came first against England. Now England has its own.
