Haaland hits hat trick to reach 50 goals for Norway after twice missing penalty against Israel

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Erling Haaland scored a hat trick against Israel to pass 50 goals for Norway after twice missing a penalty in a 5-0 World Cup qualifying victory on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Haaland extended his leading tally in European qualifying to a remarkable 12 goals in six games, and his overall Norway total to 51 in 46 matches.

Haaland reached the 50-goal mark far quicker than the other elite strikers of modern times, according to statisticians Opta.

France star Kylian Mbappé and Poland's Robert Lewandowski took 90 games, while record eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi took 107 for Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo needed 114 games with Portugal.

Haaland scored with an angled shot in the 27th minute, a powerful downward header in the 63rd and a back-post header in the 72nd.

A few minutes into the game, however, he was off target.

Haaland’s first penalty was hit low and saved by Daniel Peretz. But Polish referee Szymon Marciniak ordered the kick to be retaken because the goalkeeper had moved off his line too soon.

He tried the other way second time, aiming for the corner, but Peretz guessed correctly again and palmed his effort away as Haaland looked on disbelievingly.

Aside from the hat trick, Haaland was also involved in Norway’s third goal when his looming presence forced a blunder between Peretz and defender Dan Nachmias, leading to Israel’s second own goal of the game.

Haaland also has 12 goals in nine matches for City this season, taking his club tally to 136 in 155 games for the club.

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Norway's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his the third goal during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Norway and Israel in Oslo, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Fredrik Varfjell/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Norway's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring his side's second goal, during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Norway and Israel in Oslo, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Jonas Been Henriksen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Norway's Erling Braut Haaland reacts after missing a penalty kick, during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Norway and Israel in Oslo, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Fredrik Varfjell/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Norway's Erling Braut Haaland holds the ball prior to a penalty kick, during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Norway and Israel in Oslo, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Jonas Been Henriksen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — An Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq said it has launched attacks on Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in recent days in retaliation for Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests.

Members of the National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, have “played a role in the protests through both financial support and armed operations to defend protesters when needed,” Jwansher Rafati, a PAK representative, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Iranian media has previously accused the group and other Kurdish factions of attacking security forces.

Iranian activists say more than 2,797 people were killed in the government’s crackdown on a recent wave of nationwide protests.

A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups — some with armed wings — have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the central government in Baghdad and Tehran.

Iran has occasionally launched strikes on the groups’ sites in Iraq but has not done so since the outbreak of the recent protests.

The PAK is the first of the groups to claim armed operations since the protests and crackdown began.

“When we found out that the IRGC was shooting protesters directly, our fighters in Ilam, Kermanshah, and Firuzkuh responded with armed operations and inflicted significant damage on the regime’s forces,” Rafati said in an interview in Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.

The PAK has also claimed a number of attacks online and posted video of what it said were operations against IRGC targets, sometimes accompanied by grainy videos showing gunshots or explosions and buildings ablaze. The AP was not able to confirm the extent of the damages or the impact of the attacks.

Rafati said the attacks were launched by members of the group’s National Army of Kurdistan military wing based inside Iran. The group had not sent any forces from Iraq, but it anticipates that Iran may strike PAK bases in Iraq in retaliation for its operations, he added.

He said the PAK has been providing support to dozens of Iranians who fled to the Kurdish area in Iraq since the crackdown on protests began.

The PAK claims may put Iraqi authorities in a sensitive situation with Tehran — which wields significant influence over its neighbor — concerning the group's ongoing presence in northern Iraq.

Iraq in 2023 reached an agreement with Iran to disarm Kurdish Iranian dissident groups and move them from their bases near the border areas into camps designated by Baghdad. The bases were shut down and movement within Iraq was restricted, but the groups have remained active.

During the Israel-Iran war last year, the PAK and other Kurdish dissident groups began organizing politically in case the authorities in Tehran should lose their hold on power but did not launch armed operations.

A PAK spokesperson told the AP at the time that premature armed mobilization could endanger the Kurdish groups and the fragile security of Kurdish areas, both in Iraq and across the border in Iran.

A decade ago, PAK forces received training from the U.S. military when they were taking part in the fight against the Islamic State militant group after it swept across Iraq and Syria, seizing large swathes of territory.

Ironically, the PAK at the time found itself allied with Iran-backed Shiite Iraqi militias that were also fighting against IS.

At that time, the PAK received funding from Iraq's Kurdish regional government, but says now that most of its funding comes from its supporters in Iran and the diaspora.

During the recent protests, Iranian state media has repeatedly referred to the demonstrators as “terrorists” and alleged they received support from America and Israel, without offering evidence to support the claim.

Iranian state television aired what appeared to be surveillance video of a group of men wearing the baggy pants common among the Kurds, firing pistols, in Iran’s western Kurdish region. It has also published images of seized weapons in the area.

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdish groups including the PAK “have played an active role in inciting these movements by issuing coordinated statements and messages.” It said that “groups based in northern Iraq have passed the stage of psychological warfare and media operations and have entered the field phase.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency, which is also close to the Revolutionary Guard, reported on Jan. 10 that another group — the Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK — had killed eight Guard members in Kermanshah and that a PJAK sniper killed a police officer in Ilam province. PJAK has not claimed any armed operations during the protests.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Sewell reported from Beirut.

This image made from video shows the representative of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, Jwansher Rafati, speaking during an interview with The Associated Press, in Irbil, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)