Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele with a superb first-half performance, scoring a hat-trick as France beat Norway 4-1 at Gillette Stadium on Friday. With this big win, Les Bleus maintained their perfect record at the top of Group I, while Norway went to the Round of 32 as group runners-up.The match got off to a rough start, with the French captain Kylian Mbappe hitting the crossbar just 21 seconds into the game after a powerful burst into the upper right corner. France did not wait for this to happen, as Dembélé opened the account in the seventh minute, glancing at the right path from Mbappé and blowing to the right of the Norwegian player Egil Selvik.Dembélé added to the cushion in the 20th minute, weaving between three defenders on the edge of the box before unleashing a fine drive down the left. In a stunning response, Norway hit back 14 seconds after the restart when midfielder Thelo Aasgaard found the net to make it 2-1. However, Dembélé broke Norway’s brief recovery in the 32nd minute, pulling back two goals to complete the first World Cup hat-trick since Russia’s Oleg Salenko in 1994.Norway rested ten regular starters for the game, notably leaving talismanic player Erling Haaland on the bench for ninety minutes to keep him on the scoresheet. Selvik started in place of Orjan Nyland as part of a major overhaul.Despite the changes, Norway got a big lead in the 49th minute when Theo Hernandez tripped Oscar Bobb inside the penalty area. However, Jorgen Strand Larsen’s penalty was expertly saved by Mike Maignan. The younger Bobb remained a constant threat in the second half, but a strong French defense held out.Dembélé left the field and stood up in the 65th minute, replaced by Bradley Barcola. The Paris Saint-Germain substitutes combined well in injury time in the second half, as Barcola converted Desire Doue, who scored France’s final goal to end a historic evening in Foxborough.
