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French forward Ousmane Dembélé scored a first-half hat-trick, including one assisted by Kylian Mbappé, to help his team to a 4-1 win over Norway at the World Cup on Friday.
Dembélé’s goals came in the seventh, 20th and 32nd minutes. It was the first first-half hat-trick at a World Cup since Russian forward Oleg Salenko scored three of his five goals in the first 45 minutes against Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
The victory gave top honors in Group I to France, who finished with nine points after winning all three of their group stage matches. Norway finished second in the group with six points.
In the round of 32, Norway will face Ivory Coast in Dallas, while France will face a third-placed team yet to be determined in New Jersey.
The meeting with Norway – with top spot in Group I on the line – was billed as a Golden Boot clash between Erling Haaland and Mbappé, but Haaland was rested and it was Dembélé who stole the show with three well-taken goals before half-time.
The performance put Dembélé squarely in the race for World Cup top scorer alongside Haaland, Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Lionel Messi.
Norway coach Stale Solbakken almost conceded group victory to France when he made a number of changes to the regular starting XI – including the prolific Haaland – to rest his players ahead of their already secured place in the round of 32.
Paris Saint-Germain star Désiré Doué scored late in the second half to seal a three-goal victory over Norway for Didier Deschamps’ team.
The fastest World Cup hat-trick lasted just 7 minutes and 42 seconds. Hungarian striker Laszlo Kiss, who came off the bench, achieved the feat at the end of the match against El Salvador at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
The fastest hat-trick since the start of World Cup play occurred in the 1954 Swiss tournament, when Austrian striker Erich Probst scored his three goals in the first 24 minutes against Czechoslovakia.
France, who won the World Cup in 2018 and lost in the final four years ago, had already secured a place in the knockout stages before Friday’s match. Norway is also guaranteed a place in the round of 32.
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With a 5-0 win over Iraq, Senegal secured third place in the group and, more importantly, scored enough times to give themselves a chance of progressing.
ESPN, FIFA
