Ousmane Dembélé hat-trick eases France past Norway to seal top spot in World Cup group

Does anyone at the World Cup have the defensive strength to deny this hyper-mobile, supremely varied French attack? Not, it turns out, a second-string Norway, who were torn apart in the first half in Boston, as Ousmane Dembélé scored a beautifully precise 25-minute hat-trick en route to a 4-1 win. France now top Group I and will play their last-32 tie in New Jersey next Tuesday. Norway will play Côte d’Ivoire in Texas. This was a fun, freewheeling game, with the feel of a tournament formality, big third-place playoff energy. But it wasn’t quite that. Certainly nothing that happened here in the absence of the rested Erling Haaland will help nourish Norway’s late-stage tournament hopes, which are real but tentative, and which can only have been damaged by the sight of France’s attack using the corners of Egil Selvik’s goal for shooting practice in a jarringly open, defensively chaotic first half. This game had been billed in the World Cup hype-o-drome as Mbappé v Haaland , Nordic Goal-Grendel versus Parisian Attack-Guillotine, and so on. In the event, it was something else as Haaland was rested along with nine other Norwegians, plus any notions of continuity, momentum or coherent defence. The immediate consequence was the most lopsided opening six minutes of World Cup football you’re likely to see. …