Dembele's First-Half Hat-Trick Sends France Past Norway 4-1
The reigning Ballon d'Or winner scored three times before half-time in Boston as France sealed top spot, with Norway resting Erling Haaland.
Ousmane Dembele needed 32 minutes to settle who the best player on the pitch in Boston was. France beat Norway 4-1 on Friday, and the reigning Ballon d'Or winner scored all three of his goals before half-time, in the 7th, 20th and 32nd minutes.
It was the second-quickest hat-trick in World Cup history, behind only the 24-minute treble Austria's Erich Probst scored against Czechoslovakia in 1954. Had Dembele added a fourth, he would have been the first man to score four or more in a World Cup match since Russia's Oleg Salenko hit five against Cameroon in 1994.
Group I was billed as Kylian Mbappe against Erling Haaland. It never happened. Norway coach Stale Solbakken made ten changes and left Haaland, Antonio Nusa, Martin Odegaard and Alexander Sorloth on the bench, his side already through to the round of 32 and his mind on a kinder route through it. Mbappe still set up two of Dembele's goals. The marquee duel curdled into an exhibition.
Norway had one flicker. Thelo Aasgaard pulled a goal back seconds after Dembele's second to make it 2-1, and four minutes into the second half Jorgen Strand Larsen, handed the unenviable job of deputising for Haaland, won a penalty and then blazed the responsibility over. Mike Maignan saved nothing because there was nothing to save; Strand Larsen missed the target. Desire Doue headed in a fourth in stoppage time to round off a scoreline never truly in doubt.
The numbers around this France side are starting to look indecent. They have scored at least three goals in each of their three group games. Mbappe and Dembele have four apiece, eight of the team's ten goals at the tournament. They did it on Friday without their head coach: Didier Deschamps had flown home after the death of his mother, leaving assistant Guy Stephan in the dugout.
Solbakken's gamble is defensible only if it pays off. The same Norway side beat Senegal 3-2 on Monday with Haaland scoring twice, and a rested squad now travels to Dallas to face Ivory Coast on Tuesday. France go to New Jersey to meet a third-place qualifier the same day. The group stage has had its upsets and late theatre, including the way the United States advanced despite a stoppage-time defeat, but few nights as lopsided as this one.
Haaland watched the whole thing from the bench, 59 international goals to his name and not a minute on the night his country might have used him. France did not have to make that calculation. That was the story of the evening, and probably a warning to everyone still left in the draw.
