{"id":1060949,"date":"2026-07-01T03:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1060949\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T03:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:17:27","slug":"wayne-rooney-makes-bizarre-river-mersey-world-cup-promise-live-on-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1060949\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Rooney makes bizarre River Mersey World Cup promise live on BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Everton forward Wayne Rooney made the promise during the BBC’s live coverage of Norway’s 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast in the last-32\"Wayne<\/p>\n

Wayne Rooney<\/p>\n

Wayne Rooney has promised to row down the River Mersey if Norway beat Brazil on Sunday night to set up a potential quarter-final with England. Erling Haaland scored a late winner as Norway progressed to the last-16 of the 2026 World Cup with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast in Dallas.<\/p>\n

The Manchester City star was on hand to turn the ball home from close-range after good work from Martin Odegaard. Antonio Nusa had earlier put Norway ahead before Amad levelled things up with a moment of magic, followed by Haaland scoring in his 13th straight competitive international to send Norway through.<\/p>\n

And as Norway\u2019s players and staff prepared to celebrate by doing the ‘Viking Row’, the move that has been seen in various cities, stadiums and beyond during the World Cup, BBC<\/a> presenter Gabby Logan said: \u201cThey’re preparing to do their iconic row, Wayne has been practicing, he hasn’t promised to deliver it tonight but before the end of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Norway ends up beating Brazil, there is a possibility, if England get through, they’d face England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooney then promised: \u201cIf Norway get to the quarter-finals, I will go in the River Mersey<\/a> and I’ll row down it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Logan replied: \u201cYou heard that here first! It’s not exactly presenting Match of the Day in your underpants, but I think it’s a fairly good thing to commit to. I’m pretty sure we’ll hold you to that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brazil booked their place in the last-16 with a dramatic comeback victory against Japan on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\"Brazil's<\/p>\n

Brazil’s players celebrate after Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time goal against Japan(Image: (David Buono\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Substitute Gabriel Martinelli scored a stoppage-time winner for Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s side after they had fallen behind when Kaishu Sano struck just before the half-hour mark.<\/p>\n

But Casemiro made no mistake just before the hour mark, firmly heading past Suzuki at the back post from a Gabriel cross, before Martinelli scored five minutes into stoppage time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for Norway to keep doing the same thing, they know they’re a threat, and they know they can score goals,\u201d Rooney said, looking ahead to Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

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    \u201cBrazil are a bit more organised than what we have seen in the past. For Norway, keep doing what you’re doing and try to create chances and get Haaland opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The former Everton<\/a> man then added: \u201cErling Haaland and Gabriel have had a good running battle over the last couple of years, and it will be a fascinating game.<\/p>\n

    \u201cNorway are a very good team, and purely because of that man. Because of his goals, he has proven that he belongs at this World Cup level.<\/p>\n

    \u201cHe is just devastating. He wasn’t in the game much, but he came up with the winning goal.”<\/p>\n

    Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package<\/p>\n

    This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more<\/a>\"Content<\/p>\n

    Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.<\/p>\n

    Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Everton forward Wayne Rooney made the promise during the BBC’s live coverage of Norway’s 2-1 victory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1060950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[1467,22740,79,16,15,14349,1514],"class_list":["post-1060949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-everton-fc","tag-river-mersey","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wayne-rooney","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116842559479719169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1060950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}