Into Round of 32, France rides Dembele World Cup hat trick in win over Norway

France forward Ousmane Dembele scored a first-half hat trick, including one off a feed from Kylian Mbappe, to help his team beat Norway 4-1 at the World Cup on Friday in Foxborough, Mass.

Dembele's goals came in the seventh, 20th and 32nd minutes. It was the first first-half hat trick at the World Cup since Russia forward Oleg Salenko scored three of his five goals in the opening 45 minutes against Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

Desire Doue scored France's final goal in second-half injury time.

Dembele, who won Ballon d'Or as Europe's top player in 2025 and has now scored four goals at this year's World Cup, left the game in the 65th minute. He was replaced by Bradley Barcola.

Thelo Aasgaard got Norway on the scoreboard after Dembele's second goal, finding the back of the net only 14 seconds after the restart. But Dembele added his third goal less than nine minutes later to push the lead back to two.

Dembele increased his international goal total to eight while Mbappe now has 16 goals and four assists in 17 World Cup matches. He scored two goals in each of France's wins over Senegal and Iraq.

Erling Haaland was among 10 regular starters absent from Norway's starting lineup, presumably to rest. The wholesale changes included Egil Selvik starting in goal in place of Orjan Nyland.

France, which won the World Cup in 2018 and lost in the final four years ago, had already secured its place in the knockout round before Friday's match. Norway was also assured of a spot in the Round of 32 and ended up in second place in the group.

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The fastest World Cup hat trick took only sevent minutes 42