Reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele France produced a stunning masterclass, scoring a hat-trick to beat Norway 4-1 at Gillette Stadium on Friday. With this overwhelming victory, the Gallic Rooster maintained a perfect record in Group One, while Norway advanced to the round of 32 as the group runner-up.The game started at a frenetic pace and the French captain Kylian Mbappe Just 21 seconds into the game, he made an explosive sprint on the right wing and hit the crossbar. France didn’t have to wait long for a breakthrough as Dembélé opened the scoring in the seventh minute, latching on to a pinpoint pass from Kylian Mbappe and firing a right-footed shot past Norwegian goalkeeper Egil Selvik.Dembélé doubled the cushion in the 20th minute, weaving in between three defenders on the edge of the box before curling in a brilliant left-foot shot. Just 14 seconds after the game restarted, Norway midfielder Thelo Aasgaard scored to make the score 2-1. However, Dembélé shattered Norway’s brief recovery in the 32nd minute to restore a two-goal cushion and complete a first-half World Cup hat-trick since Russia’s Oleg Salenko in 1994.Norway rotated through ten of their regular starters for this game, most notably keeping talismanic striker Erling Haaland on the bench for the entire ninety minutes to ensure he was available for the knockout rounds. As part of the overall changes, Selvik replaced Orjan Nyland as the starting goalkeeper.Despite the change in structure, Norway received a huge lifeline in the 49th minute when Theo Hernandez tripped Oscar Bobb in the penalty area. However, Jorgen Strand-Larsen’s penalty was expertly saved by Mike Menion. Young Bobu remained a threat in the second half, but France’s defense was rock solid.Dembélé left the field in the 65th minute to a standing ovation and was replaced by Bradley Bakla. PSG’s substitutes worked perfectly together in second-half stoppage time, with Bakla setting up Desire Douai, who scored the final goal for France to cap off a historic night in Foxborough.
