Ousmane Dembele scored one of the earliest hat-tricks in World Cup history as the Ballon d’Or winner starred in France’s 4-1 victory over a rotated Norway side at Boston Stadium on Friday, with Erling Haaland watching from the bench. Dembele opened the scoring in the seventh minute, doubled the lead on 20 minutes and completed his treble in the 32nd minute after Thelo Aasgaard had pulled one back, before Desire Doue headed a stoppage-time fourth. Jorgen Strand Larsen had an earlier penalty saved by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
The hat-trick takes Dembele to four goals in the tournament — he also scored in Monday’s 3-0 win over Iraq — and may ease some of the burden on captain Kylian Mbappe. Mbappe earned his 101st cap in the match and remains on 16 World Cup goals, still chasing Lionel Messi’s tournament record of 18. France finished Group I with the maximum nine points, scoring 10 goals in three games, and advance as group winners. They will remain in the northeastern United States for a last-32 tie against a third-place finisher at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey next Tuesday.
France were without coach Didier Deschamps for the game after he returned to France to attend his mother’s funeral; Deschamps, who will step down at the end of the World Cup after 14 years in charge, is due back with the squad on Saturday, the team said. Arsenal defender William Saliba sat out with a sore back and was replaced by Maxence Lacroix; Doue, Theo Hernandez and Aurelien Tchouameni returned to the starting lineup, while Dembele and Mbappe kept their places.
Norway had already secured progress to the last 32 thanks to earlier wins over Iraq and Senegal, so coach Stale Solbakken made 10 changes. Haaland, captain Martin Odegaard and Alexander Sorloth were among those rested, with Benfica’s Fredrik Aursnes the only regular retained. Norway go through in second place on six points and will face Ivory Coast in Dallas next Tuesday.
Dembele’s quick treble put him in rare company: only Erich Probst completed a hat-trick earlier in a World Cup match — three goals inside the first 24 minutes for Austria in 1954 — while the fastest World Cup hat-trick remains Hungary’s Laszlo Kiss, who scored three in under eight minutes against El Salvador in 1982. Dembele is now one of three French players to score World Cup hat-tricks, joining Just Fontaine (twice in 1958) and Mbappe (three in the 2022 final). Dembele credited the win’s importance after the game: “We want to win every match, and we’ll keep our focus because what’s coming next is even more important,” he told reporters. Assistant coach Guy Stephan added: “As for the game, we did what we needed to do. There was a lot of enjoyment in the way we played, plenty of intensity and plenty of chances. That said, there were also moments when we weren’t quite at our best and we need to iron those out.”
In Group I’s other match, Senegal boosted their knockout hopes with a 5-0 win over 10-man Iraq. Habib Diarra opened the scoring in the fourth minute, Ismaila Sarr added his third tournament goal as part of a four-goal second half, Pape Gueye struck twice with long-range efforts, and Iliman Ndiaye wrapped up the victory in the 82nd minute. Senegal sealed third place in the group and currently hold the fifth-best record among third-placed teams on a plus-2 goal difference as they vie for one of the eight best third-place spots. Iraq were eliminated from their second World Cup, their first appearance since 1986.
Original Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/26/dembele-scores-hat-trick-as-france-beat-norway-4-1-at-world-cup-2026
Category:
Tags:
Publish Date: 2026-06-27 03:05:00
