World Cup: France top Group I as Dembélé's hattrick sinks rotated Norway

A rampant France headlined by the mercurial Ousmane Dembélé secured top spot in Group I with a 4-1 win over a heavily rotated Norway side in Toronto today. Having already sealed their place in the knockouts, Erling Haaland and nine others were afforded rests by coach Stale Solbakken from the get-go. 

Given the vast amount of alterations, Norway struggled to keep pace with Les Bleus from the first whistle. Their defence gave way inside 7 minutes when Kylian Mbappé fired a lovely ball into Ousmane Dembélé's path. The former Dortmund winger jinked left and right before planting his shot inside the left upright. 

Jorgen Strand-Larsen blazed wide on a rare foray upfield, but Dembélé struck again from a similar position making it 2-0 on 20 minutes using finesse rather than power. Amazingly, from the restart, France went to sleep and allowed Schjelderup to feed Thelo Aasgaard to reduce the deficit mere seconds later. 

The Toronto crowd were swiftly treated to a 32-minute hattrick when Dembélé popped up on the right once more, mirroring the dose he administered to his Scandinavian opponents for his second strike. Egil Selvik produced two fine bits of goalkeeping before the break to deny both Desire Doué and Manu Koné.

The drama continued three minutes into the second-half when Oscar Bobb was brought down by Theo Hernandez, but Strand-Larsen was denied from the penalty spot by Maignan. A bitter shame for Stale Solbakken's side who were the dominant force past the hour mark but ultimately no reward to show for it. 

Norway kept the pressure on and forced the French into an error which yielded a chance. Much to Bobb's frustration, Maignan got a big hand to it. Ultimately, France had the last laugh as substitute Barcola and Doué linked up to get a fourth – Les Bleus will likely face Sweden next, while Norway clash with Côte d'Ivoire.