FOXBOROUGH.- Ousmane Dembele showed that not only Kylian Mbappé lives France and, with a hat trick, he led his country to a 4-1 victory over Norway this Friday at the closing of Group I of the Worldwhere the Blues finish leaders with a total of three victories.
He Ballon d’Or 2025 It was a hurricane in the first half (7′, 20′, 32′) and Desiré Douewith a header, put the icing on the cake (90+3′) of the victory against Norway for whom he scored Thelo Aasgaard in the 21st minute, under the gaze of the bench Erling Haalandsubstitute on this occasion to balance forces.
The two teams arrived already classified in Foxborough (near Boston) on this third day, after winning the first two, and with 9 points the lead went to France, whose rival in the round of 32 will be one of the best third-placed teams, on Tuesday in East Rutherford.
That same day, in Dallas Stadium of Arlington, Norway will be seen with Ivory Coast.
Haaland, who watched the entire game from the sidelines without actually coming into play, will presumably return to the starting lineup for the Scandinavian team, while on the France bench his coach will return for the knockout rounds. Didier Deschampsabsent on this occasion due to the recent death of his mother, which forced him to move to his country.
Deschamps, despite his absence, became the coach with the most World Cup wins, with 17, surpassing the German Helmut Schoen (16).
Chasing Messi
Haaland’s substitution avoided from the outset the duel of gunmen in the purest Western style with Kylian Mbappésomething that Dembélé took advantage of.
The PSG attacker had achieved in the previous match against Iraq (3-0) his first goal in a World Cup, as a preamble before uncovering the jar of essences this Friday.
The first and third, in the 7th and 32nd minutes, were with two cross shots in the area surrounded by rivals and showing his ability to do damage from his role as a winger.
In between, a second goal with an accurate shot from outside the area (20′).
With a total of 4 goals so far in the tournament, Dembélé reached second place in the table of top scorers Mbappé, Haaland and the Brazilian Vinicius Jrand was only one of the five behind the leader, the Argentine Lionel Messi.
The record must wait
Mbappé, the French hero in the previous victories against the Senegalese and Iraqis with two goals in each game, also scored a double this Friday… but with assists, for Dembélé’s first two goals.
And the start of the game seemed to promise another display from “Kyky”, which after 25 seconds he hit the crossbar.
Substituted in the 87th minute, without success in his repeated attempts to score during the second half, he is limited to 16 goals in World Cups, the same as the retired German Miroslav Klose already two from Messi, who can extend his advantage on Saturday against Jordan.
Day off
Although France made four changes to its eleven compared to the second match, to give oxygen to several players before the direct elimination rounds, Norway made a deeper rotation and, along with Haaland, the other national figure was also a substitute, Martin Odegaard.
The decision of Stale Solbakken He emptied the team’s offensive weapons of gunpowder and their only moment of hope was the goal from Thelo Aasgaard (21′), to stop the French euphoria for a few moments.
But that was the end of the Scandinavians’ mordence, who even saw how the archer Mike Maignan guessed a penalty kick Jorgen Strand Larsen in the 50′.
Senegal crushed Iraq
Senegal won 5-0 Iraq on Friday at the closing of Group I of the World and was waiting for other results to retain a place among the best third parties that advance to the round of 32.
The Lions of Teranga, commanded by Sadio Manethey beat the weakest team in the area in toronto with goals from Habib Diarra (minute 4), Ismaila Sarr (56), Pape Gueye in duplicate (59 and 72) and Iliman Ndiaye (82).
Behind France and Norway in the group with three points, they will have to wait for the remaining group stage matches to see if they advance to the next round.
