By William Schomberg
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts, June 26 (Reuters) - Ousmane Dembele scored a hat-trick as his ruthless already-qualified France side claimed top spot in World Cup Group I with a 4-1 win over second-string Norway on Friday.
The winger scored three times in the space of 25 minutes in the first half to send the 2018 world champions and 2022 runners-up into the knockout phase of this year’s tournament with a spring in their step.
The France players had promised to go for a win as a tribute
to coach Didier Deschamps who has flown home from the United States to attend the funeral of his mother.
Les Bleus – like Norway - had made sure of a place in the Round of 32 before Friday's clash but wanted to top the group 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 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 once again to score with a dipping shot.
Norway pulled a goal back almost immediately through Thelo Aasgaard before Dembele became only the third France player to score a World Cup hat-trick – after Just Fontaine 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.
By finishing top of Group I, France are likely to meet Sweden in the first knockout round of the tournament. As runners-up, Norway will play Ivory Coast.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
