Dembélé hat-trick powers France to perfect World Cup group stage

Ousmane Dembélé tore through Norway with a first-half hat-trick as France won 4-1 in Boston, Massachusetts, and completed a perfect World Cup group stage. The result pushed France to the top of Group I with three wins from three.

The match carried less knockout pressure than it might have on paper because France and Norway had already secured their places in the next round before kickoff. Even so, Norway arrived with a heavily rotated side, with Ståle Solbakken making 10 changes and leaving Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard on the bench to preserve them for the elimination rounds. Group I included France, Norway, Senegal and Iraq.

Dembélé turned the night into a personal showcase. The hat-trick came in just 25 minutes, and one of his goals was set up by Kylian Mbappé as France moved 3-1 ahead during the first half. The third goal put the game beyond Norway before the interval and left France in full control at 4-1 by the final whistle.

It was the first first-half hat-trick at a World Cup since Oleg Salenko in 1994. For a team that arrived as a two-time world champion and had already qualified for the 2026 tournament by beating Ukraine 4-0 in UEFA play on 13 November, the display added a milestone to three points.

Dembélé’s finishing supplied the headline. Norway, which had leaned on Haaland as the 16-goal leading scorer in European qualifying, could afford to rest its stars only because it had already advanced. France, by contrast, kept pressing, kept creating and kept scoring against a side built largely from backups.