Norway may not be among football’s traditional elite, but when it comes to facing Brazil at the World Cup, history could be on their side. Here’s what makes this encounter intriguing.

Carlo Ancelotti is preparing for one of the toughest challenges of his illustrious career—guiding Brazil to their first World Cup knockout victory over a European team in nearly 25 years.

Brazil last defeated a European side in a World Cup elimination match when they beat Germany in the 2002 final in Japan. Since then, every time they’ve met European opposition in the knockout rounds, they’ve been knocked out of the tournament.

Erling Haaland and his Norwegian teammates will aim to keep Brazil’s long-standing struggle against European nations alive. However, with the Brazilian Football Confederation appointing their first-ever foreign full-time head coach, they may have found the ideal figure to break that jinx.

Few managers in football history can match the pedigree of ‘Don Carlo’. Ancelotti has lifted more UEFA Champions League titles than any other manager—five in total, with two at AC Milan and three at Real Madrid. He is also the only coach to have won league titles in each of Europe’s top five leagues.

After clinching the Serie A title with AC Milan, Ancelotti went on to win the Premier League with Chelsea, Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, and the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. He completed the remarkable set by adding a La Liga title during his second spell with Real Madrid.

While international football presents its own unique challenges, Ancelotti’s wealth of experience at the highest level could be exactly what Brazil need to finally overcome their European curse in knockout stages.

The drought began at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Brazil entered as the reigning champions. They won their group by defeating Croatia, Australia, and Japan, and then eased past Ghana in the Round of 16. However, their campaign ended in the quarter-finals with a 1-0 loss to France, a match defined by Zinedine Zidane’s masterclass.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Brazil again topped their group following a tense goalless draw with Portugal and a convincing 3-0 win over Marcelo Bielsa’s Chile. But their progress was halted in the quarter-finals by the Netherlands, who overturned Robinho’s opener with a stunning second-half comeback in Port Elizabeth.

Both France in 2006 and the Netherlands in 2010 went on to lose in the final, but Germany broke the pattern in 2014. Joachim Löw’s side humiliated Brazil 7-1 in Belo Horizonte before going on to lift the trophy at the Maracana. Despite showing great spirit to defeat Chile and Colombia earlier in the tournament, injuries to Neymar and the suspension of Thiago Silva led to a disastrous collapse, compounded by a 3-0 defeat to the Netherlands in the third-place play-off.

In 2018, Brazil battled hard against Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ but were edged out in a fiercely contested quarter-final. Four years later in Qatar, Brazil dominated Croatia and appeared to have sealed victory with a brilliant extra-time goal from Neymar, only to concede late and lose on penalties.

Norway now find themselves in the company of Belgium and Croatia—nations without Brazil’s rich footballing heritage but boasting at least one world-class talent, a balanced squad, and the confidence of recent success.

As Brazil prepare for the Round of 16—a stage they have not failed to progress beyond since Italia ’90—defeating Norway would not only exorcise a long-standing curse but also give Ancelotti the landmark victory that could define the early phase of his tenure with the Seleção.