France's Dembele steals show with 25-minute hat-trick against Norway

Ousmane Dembele scored a first-half hat-trick as France made sure of top spot in World Cup Group I with a ruthless 4-1 win on Friday over a second-string Norway who like the French had already qualified for the next round of the tournament.

The winger scored three times in the space of 25 minutes in the first period to send the 2018 world champions and 2022 runners-up into the Round of 32 with a spring in their step.

The France players had promised to go for their third win in as many games as a tribute to coach Didier Deschamps who has flown home from the US to attend the funeral of his mother.

"We really wanted to be there for Didier and to be up to the task," said France assistant coach Guy Stephan - who has been Deschamps' right-hand man since their Olympique de Marseille days. "I will call him later on and he will be ecstatic."

By taking first place in the group, France set up a meeting with Sweden in the first knockout round, while second-placed Norway will play Ivory Coast.

Deschamps is due to return to the squad on Saturday to begin preparing for the next phase.

Although France and Norway had made sure of a last-32 place before Friday's clash, the French made it clear they wanted to come top to take advantage of a lighter travel schedule offered by the tournament’s North American criss-crossing route map.

Their task was made easier by Norway coach Stale Solbakken’s decision to rest all but one of the players who started against Senegal earlier this week, including goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland and captain Martin Odegaard.

FRANCE ATTACK FROM THE START

France went on the attack from the kickoff. Kylian Mbappe, who is likely to be challenging Haaland for the World Cup’s Golden Boot top scorer award, slammed an angled shot off the bar with barely 20 seconds on the clock.

Six minutes later Mbappe swept a glorious cross-field pass to Dembele who cut inside and then outside a defender before blasting an angled shot past goalkeeper Egil Selvik.

Mbappe fed Dembele again in the 20th minute and the Paris St Germain forward gained a yard of space against his marker to score with a dipping shot.

Norway pulled a goal back almost immediately through Thelo Aasgaard before Dembele became the third France player to score a World Cup treble – after Just Fontaine in the 1950s and Mbappe - by curling a low shot into the bottom corner in the 32nd.

It was the second-earliest hat-trick ever scored at a World Cup, behind Erich Probst who got three goals for Austria in 1954 against Czechoslovakia after 24 minutes.

Jorgen Strand Larsen blew a chance to get Norway back into the game early in the second half when his soft penalty was saved by Mike Maignan.

Winger Oscar Bobb forced Maignan into another save as the Scandinavians exposed some vulnerability in their opponents' back line before Desire Doue got France’s fourth with a header from a cross by substitute Bradley Barcola in the dying moments.

Norway coach Solbakken said it had been a "no-brainer" to rest so many of his usual starters against France, including Haaland and Odegaard.

"The only argument for not doing what we did is that the fans in Norway and here could have seen Erling and Martin. But then it wouldn't be a long World Cup, and that's what we're here for," he said. "We're here to go as far as possible."