Dembélé scores hat-trick as France edges Norway in group finale

Ousmane Dembélé scored three times and France beat Norway 3-1 at Boston Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, but Thelo Aasgaard’s quick response after the second French goal kept the final Group I match from becoming a one-way march. France controlled the scoreline from the 7th minute, yet Norway’s 21st-minute strike briefly changed the mood inside a game that carried first-place implications for two teams already through to the knockout rounds.

Dembélé opened the scoring in the 7th minute and doubled France’s lead in the 20th before completing his hat-trick in the 32nd. Norway answered almost immediately after that second goal, when Aasgaard finished in the 21st minute to make it 2-1 and give Ståle Solbakken’s side its clearest moment of resistance. The sequence mattered because France never lost command, but Norway at least showed it could force a reaction in a match that had already looked tilted toward Les Bleus.

Solbakken had taken a major gamble at kickoff, making 10 changes and leaving Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard on the bench. France, by contrast, started with Kylian Mbappé and kept its strongest attacking shape intact. That contrast defined the opening stages: France’s front line pressed and finished ruthlessly, while Norway’s reshuffled team spent much of the night trying to absorb pressure and stay within reach long enough to find one opening.

Both teams arrived in Foxborough with six points and qualification already secured, which made the evening less about survival than about seeding and momentum. The World Cup had begun on 11 June and is scheduled to finish with the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on 19 July, placing this Group I finale in the center of the tournament’s first decisive sorting of contenders. For Norway, Aasgaard’s goal was not enough to change the result, but it was the one moment that suggested Solbakken’s rotated side still had a pulse, even against a France team that dictated the group on its own terms.