FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — As if France weren’t already a multidimensional offensive onslaught of a nightmare for the rest of this World Cup field, Les Bleus predictably blew past a second-string Norway squad on Friday in the teams’ final game of Group I play with a 4-1 rout. The result lifted France to nine points on 10 goals in three games, setting them up for one of the best bracket positions in the knockout stage.

France’s first three goals arrived in the first 32 minutes and came from the foot of one man, but not the one who’s the face of French soccer.

After Kylian Mbappé spanked a quick-strike attempt across the crossbar just 21 seconds into the game — a blast that immediately teased the 64,000-plus in attendance here at the home of the New England Patriots — the best ball striker on the planet mostly took on a supporting role over the next 87 minutes. Friday afternoon was Ousmane Dembélé’s moment on the biggest stage in soccer. He deftly and redoubtably slammed home the goods in the seventh minute, the 20th minute and then the 32nd minute, with Mbappé assisting on the first two.

It marked the earliest hat trick in a World Cup game in 72 years. The only one faster in the history of the event came in 1954, when Austrian Erich Probst put three on the board in the first 24 minutes in a game against Czechoslovakia. It was the World Cup’s first hat trick in an opening half since the USSR’s Oleg Salenko in 1994, when he piled on five against Cameroon in Stanford Stadium.

Dembélé did it against a Norwegian squad that, to the disappointment of pretty much everyone invested in taking in the game, wasn’t playing at full strength. Pressure was at a minimum here due to both teams having already qualified for next week’s knockout round. France will likely face Sweden in the round of 32 in New Jersey on Tuesday, while Norway is set to play Ivory Coast in Dallas after going 2-0-1 with a +1 goal differential.

Dembélé’s hat trick was historic: He joined Mbappé and Just Fontaine as the only Frenchmen to tally three goals in a World Cup game. Dembélé, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner, took the spotlight from Mbappé, who seemed content to play the role of facilitator. Even in that part, he still notched another statistical milestone. The 27-year-old has now scored or assisted on 20 World Cup goals, putting him alongside Lionel Messi and Miroslav Klose as the only people to ever do it.

Dembélé might have gotten a fourth goal off that powerful left leg of his if not for leaving in the 65th minute, his reputation boosting a notch as the World Cup readies to turn for its third week. France mostly played out the string and bled the clock in the second half, though they’re too talented to let an easy opportunity pass by: The French added a sweet finish in the final minute of the match when Paris Saint-Germain teammates combined with Bradley Barcola feeding a pass to a waiting Désiré Doué, who sent in the fourth goal via a beautiful header. 

Norway’s guaranteed advancement led to arguably the biggest letdown of this 2026 World Cup so far. Fans were robbed of the chance to see two of the four biggest names in soccer going toe-to-toe, with potentially the best Golden Boot race ever unfolding. While Mbappé played almost the entire game, his superstar counterpart in red sat. Erling Haaland, the big-footed big blond galoot who’s transcended his overseas celebrity into being a recognizable sports figure here in the United States, did not play. Nor did most of the other regular starters for the Vikings.

A shame, as Norway might have had a chance to keep it interesting if the game’s most physically imposing player had opted to give it a run in what was the first World Cup battle between the two. It was load management, but just as the United States deployed the tactic on Thursday against Turkiye, Norway was justified in doing the same against the French.

Instead, it robbed the World Cup of the biggest head-to-head to this point. It wasn’t just the majority of the starters who sat for the Vikings; Norway’s starting goalkeeper, Ørjan Nyland, also didn’t play.

They essentially conceded the battle before it began. 

Norway leaves Group I with six points, in this its first World Cup bid since 1998, the year of their best finish (round of 16). The world will have to wait another five days to see Haaland, who will be well-rested and ready to rumble in Texas. 

With Mbappé and Haaland both going scoreless on Friday, it did allow for the Golden Boot chase to tighten heading into next week. As group play wraps this weekend, Messi still has the edge, but just by one. Messi has five goals in this World Cup, while Kylian Mbappé, Dembélé and Haaland all have four, in addition to Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior (though in fairness to Messi Argentina have yet to play their third groupstage match). Halaand’s on an epic hot streak, having scored in the last 12 games he’s suited up for Norway and is the fastest player to 50 international goals ever (he’s done it in 46 games). 

As France turn to the knockout stage, they leave behind a trail of destruction that’s ominous for most of the rest of the field. Watching this team in person, they are a joy as they glide in bodily harmony all over the pitch. France calls to mind the peak of the Steph Curry and Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors: too talented to let anyone beat them when at their best. They dropped four goals on Friday but could’ve easily had two more had the circumstances mandated it.

This marks a decidedly different France than the teams that have come in the past two World Cups. The France that won in 2018, and runners up in 2022, were many things. They were not outright fun. Those sides used the likes of Mbappé, as well as now internationally retired forwards Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud, as a sharp tip atop a blunt instrument. They’d sometimes not so much win games as survive them, hoping for a beautiful bailout. In 2026, this is a new angle on French football. It’s fun.

Les Bleus won 10–2 on aggregate against Senegal, Iraq and Norway. They have found themselves with a fairly easy path to the semifinals as well. A perspective matchup with Germany in the round of 16 the hardest matchup on the horizon. They glide and fly with an ease that seems terrifying to scheme against. 

When you claim maybe the best player in the world … and then his teammate drops a hat trick in the first half and it’s not even a surprising development, that’s all the evidence needed to support the claim that it’s not Spain, not England, not Brazil or any other country eying the trophy.

All three Dembélé shots that found the net came from at least 15 yards out. The angles low, the strikes like cannons off his left foot, which may as well have acted as a sniper’s scope. If Mbappé represents France’s sheer offensive power, Dembélé is the embodiment of its relentlessness. There is no slowing this team down. Beating them obviously isn’t impossible, but it will take something extraordinary to do it.