Ousmane Dembélé turned France’s World Cup match against Norway into a one-man sprint on Friday, scoring three times before the 33rd minute in a 4-1 win that kept his name near the top of the Golden Boot Race. He struck in the seventh, 20th and 32nd minutes, then left in the 65th minute after the job had already been done.
The performance mattered immediately because France had already secured a knockout-round place before kickoff, so the focus in Foxborough, Mass., was on what the match could still reveal. Dembélé answered that question fast. Kylian Mbappé fed one of the goals, Mbappé himself hit the crossbar 21 seconds into the game, and France were suddenly in control of a game that still produced a jolt when Norway scored through Thelo Aasgaard only 14 seconds after the restart.
Dembélé’s hat trick was the first first-half World Cup hat trick since Oleg Salenko did it against Cameroon in 1994, a run of years that underlines how rare this kind of scoring burst remains on the sport’s biggest stage. It also pushed Dembélé to eight international goals, while Mbappé’s numbers kept climbing too: 16 goals and four assists in 17 World Cup matches. For France, the result was more than another win. It was proof that the attack can overwhelm an opponent before the second half even begins.
Norway, though, did not fold cleanly. Erling Haaland was absent from the starting lineup, part of a broader decision that left 10 regular starters out, and the team still found a way to test France after the break. Theo Hernandez was whistled for tripping Oscar Bobb in the box in the 49th minute, but Jorgen Strand Larsen’s penalty was batted away by Mike Maignan. That sequence left Norway with one goal and one miss that could have changed the mood of the match, even if the final score never really seemed in doubt after Dembélé’s opening burst.
France also added a final goal through Désiré Doué in second-half injury time, a late flourish on a night that already belonged to Dembélé. Norway finished second in the group, which means the loss does not end its run, but it does leave the team with a clear problem to solve: whether resting so many regulars was worth the cost of being blown open so early by one of the tournament’s sharpest finishes.
