By Karolos Grohmann
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts, June 26 (Reuters) - It was supposed to be the Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe show when France met Norway in their final Group I match on Friday, with both teams already qualified for the knockout stage.
But the sold-out 64,000 crowd at Boston stadium who paid to see two of the greatest strikers of their generation fight it out, ended up with a one-man show.
France striker Ousmane Dembele tore up the script, delivering a mesmerising first-half performance
crowned with his first World Cup hat-trick, only the third French player to achieve the feat in the tournament's 96-year history, as his team swept a second-string Norway team aside 4-1.
Last year's Ballon d'Or winner struck three times in a free-flowing game, with Norway, also assured of a spot in the Round of 32 after finishing second, heavily rotating their starting lineup and leaving Haaland on the bench.
That mattered little for France, who hit the bar through Mbappe 25 seconds into the game and showed they meant business.
It was a few minutes later that 29-year-old Dembele opened his account. By the end of the first half the Paris St Germain striker and back-to-back Champions League winner had silenced his critics with a hat-trick in a span of 25 minutes.
Dembele, a world champion in 2018, had not scored a World Cup goal in his two previous tournaments in 2018 and 2022 and a total of 11 matches at the finals, prompting many to question his ability to deliver on the big stage for the national team, and pointing to his lack of consistency and efficiency when playing for his country instead of his club.
His overall record for France was equally unimpressive with eight goals in 61 internationals prior to Friday.
But Dembele opened his account with a goal against Iraq in France's second group game before adding three more on Friday to take his tally at the tournament to four, as many as Mbappe and one less than leading scorer Lionel Messi of Argentina.
Dembele also joined France great Just Fontaine and Mbappe as the only French players to have scored at least three goals in a World Cup match. His three goals in the first 32 minutes of the game was also the second-earliest hat-trick in a World Cup behind Austria's Erich Probst in 1954 (24 minutes).
Dembele's treble will, however, do more than just go into World Cup record books.
It sent an ominous warning to fellow title contenders that France now have goal threats that go well beyond Mbappe. With Dembele discovering his World Cup scoring form just before the knockout stage, France look to be the team to beat.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Ken Ferris)
