‘Decisive’ Dembélé joins party but could group dominance hurt France?

F rance will take on Norway in Boston on Friday for the right to top Group I, but one man thinks it’s already done. “Honestly I don’t care that much”, Erling Haaland told Fox in the US. “They’re probably going to win against us. They’re probably going to win the whole tournament.” Haaland may have been playing mind games, and you will not hear Didier Deschamps making any such argument. But the French head coach certainly took satisfaction from his team’s storm-hit but ultimately straightforward victory over Iraq. Featuring another Kylian Mbappé double and two more assists for Michael Olise, this match’s notable success was Ousmane Dembélé’s arrival at the party, scoring his first tournament goal at the 20th attempt. The Ballon d’Or winner got a second-half goal, finding separation in the box to convert a smooth Olise assist with a shot across the Iraq goalkeeper, Ahmed Basil. By this point he already had a notable assist, squaring simply for Mbappé after snaffling the ball during another Iraq defensive snafu. This brought particular joy to Deschamps as it ended the recent line of media questioning as to the role of the Paris Saint-Germain star in the team. “There is no issue with Ousmane, he has had to readapt to a system he doesn’t play all year,” was Deschamps’ post-match verdict. “As long as Ousmane is well physically, it’s just fine-tuning. I trust in Ousmane, he knows that, and doing what he did today was important. …