There are nights when a tournament turns on a single swing of a boot, and at Hard Rock Stadium it was Jude Bellingham who provided it. In the 93rd minute, with Norway bracing for extra time and England's supporters holding their breath, the midfielder met a corner in the centre of the box and drilled a right-footed finish into the bottom-left corner. Norway 1, England 2. The stadium erupted, and a quarter-final that had swung both ways finally tipped in England's favour.

It was cruel on Norway, who had led, been pegged back, and fought to the last. But it was fitting for Bellingham, whose fingerprints were all over the result. His first goal, a poised strike on the stroke of half-time, dragged England level when they were staring at the interval a goal down. His second, the last meaningful act of the ninety-plus minutes, sent them through to the last four.

England had ridden their luck and their resilience in equal measure. For long stretches Norway looked the more assured, the more inventive, the side playing to a plan. Yet tournament football rewards those who endure, and England endured. When the decisive moment arrived, they were the ones with the composure to take it.

Schjelderup strikes first

Norway had set the tone early and their reward came in the 36th minute. Martin Ødegaard, orchestrating from the half-spaces as he has all summer, slipped a pass to Andreas Schjelderup on the left side of the box. The finish was exquisite: a left-footed shot bent and lifted into the top-right corner, beyond reach and beyond argument. Norway 1, England 0, and thoroughly deserved.

For a spell it felt like the platform for something special. Ødegaard was conducting, his teammates were pressing with purpose, and England were second to the loose ball and slow to the counter. The Norwegian supporters, outnumbered but loud, sensed an upset brewing under the Miami floodlights.

But football's oldest lesson is that a lead is only as safe as the final whistle allows, and Norway would learn it the hard way. The goal, brilliant as it was, gave them something to protect. Against a side of England's quality, protection is a dangerous ambition to carry for an entire half.

Bellingham hauls England level

The equaliser arrived at the most deflating moment for Norway, in the second minute of first-half stoppage time. Anthony Gordon, all urgency down the flank, worked the ball to Bellingham on the left side of the box. The finish was clinical, a left-footed strike guided into the bottom-right corner. Norway 1, England 1, and the psychological arithmetic of the half was transformed in an instant.

Timing is everything, and this goal carried the sting of the very worst timing for Norway. They had done the hard part, weathered England's growing pressure, and were seconds from carrying their advantage into the sanctuary of the dressing room. Instead they trudged off level, the lead surrendered, the momentum handed back.

England, by contrast, returned for the second half reborn. The interval that might have been an exercise in frustration became a reset. Whatever had been said in the moments before the restart, England emerged with the belief that the tie was theirs to win rather than a deficit to chase.

The stoppage-time hammer

The second half became a test of nerve, a contest neither side could quite bend to their will. Chances came and went, the tension thickened, and the prospect of extra time loomed larger with every passing minute. Norway dug in; England probed. Something had to give, and it gave at the death.

When the corner swung in during the 93rd minute, Bellingham was where the great ones always seem to be. He arrived in the centre of the box and struck cleanly, low and hard into the bottom-left corner. It was the goal of a player who refuses to let a big occasion pass without leaving his mark, and it settled a quarter-final that had refused to settle itself.

For Norway there was no time to respond. The final whistle came moments later, confirming an exit that will feel desperately harsh given how much of the match they controlled. Ødegaard and Schjelderup had illuminated the first half; it counted for nothing once Bellingham had the final say. Tournament knockouts are unforgiving arithmetic, and Norway ended on the wrong side of it.

Into the last four

England march on into the World Cup semi-finals, carried by a talisman operating at the peak of his powers. Two goals from the same man in a knockout tie is the stuff of legacy, and Bellingham has delivered exactly the sort of decisive, big-occasion performance a deep run demands. The manner of it — behind, then level, then ahead at the last — will only sharpen the belief coursing through the squad.

There will be caveats, and honest voices within the camp will acknowledge them. For long periods Norway were the better side, and England relied on individual brilliance to paper over collective stretches of struggle. Against the calibre of opponent awaiting in the semi-finals, control cannot be surrendered so freely. Winning ugly is a virtue in a tournament; it is rarely a strategy.

Yet the scoreboard is the only document that survives, and it reads Norway 1, England 2. Norway go home able to hold their heads high, undone not by inferiority but by the finest of margins and one player's refusal to be denied. England, meanwhile, are two matches from glory, their name still in the hat, their belief intact. Bellingham has given them a night to remember and a reason to dream. The last four beckons, and the noise from Miami will follow them all the way there.