Iraq 1-4 Norway: FIFA World Cup Match Report

Iraq scored one goal at this World Cup and it came inside the first half of their opening match. Iraq 1-4 Norway stood at 1-2 at the interval — close enough to keep a double chance alive and close enough to suggest a genuine contest — before two more goals after the break turned it into the rout the final score describes.

The half-time position is the part worth dwelling on, because 1-2 at the break is a very different match from 1-4 at the end. Iraq had scored, were within a goal, and had forty-five minutes to work with. What followed was two unanswered Norwegian goals and the beginning of a group stage that would end with Iraq holding the worst goal difference of any side at the tournament: one scored, twelve conceded, a return of -11 from three matches.

Norway's four goals were half of the eight they scored across the group. They followed this with a 3-2 win over Senegal and a 1-4 defeat to France, finishing on six points with a 8:7 record — a team that scored freely and conceded almost as often.

Norway's three points on the opening day were the foundation of a qualification they completed by beating Senegal a week later. They finished second in Group I behind a France side that took maximum points, and their final-day defeat to France did not threaten the position.

Iraq's exit began here and never really slowed. They lost 3-0 to France and 5-0 to Senegal to finish bottom without a point, having conceded four, three and five goals in successive matches. Senegal finished third on three points despite scoring eight goals in the group — five of them against Iraq on the final day, by which point Iraq's group was over in everything but arithmetic.

Our pre-match call was Double Chance 1X (Iraq or Draw) at 1.42. It lost, and the half-time score is the only stage at which it looked recoverable.

The case for it was that Norway had not yet demonstrated the attacking consistency their group record eventually showed, and that an opening fixture between two of the group's lower seeds was likely to be tight. The first part was simply wrong: Norway scored eight goals across three matches and four of them arrived here. The second was defensible at 1-2 and indefensible by full time. Backing a side to avoid defeat at a short price only works when that side has a defensive floor, and Iraq's — twelve goals conceded in three matches — did not exist.

Verdict: lost