World Cup 2026 Player of the Day - Day 16: Dembele Delight as France Maintain Perfect Start
Tom Hancock
Ousmane Dembele hit a first-half hat-trick to fire France into the World Cup Round of 32 with a 4-1 win over Norway in Boston.
Having notched his first major tournament goal against Iraq last time out, Dembele put himself in Golden Boot contention by netting three times inside 32 minutes.
The Ballon d’Or winner’s hat-trick was the first in the first half of a World Cup game since Oleg Salenko for Russia against Cameroon in 1994 – and the second-fastest in the history of the tournament after Erich Probst for Austria against Czechoslovakia in 1954 (24 minutes).
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Moving to five goal contributions at these finals, Dembele places behind only teammate Kylian Mbappe (six) in that respect.
As one would expect, the PSG star’s three goals all came from high-quality finishes, the latter two almost carbon copies as he curled the ball in left-footed at the far post.
Dembele moves to 11 goals for his country, with whom he won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The result sends France through as Group I winners, having triumphed in all three of their group matches – something they’ve only done once before at the World Cup: in 1998 when they lifted the trophy for the first time…
Dembele and co. will take on Sweden in New York in the last 32, with the winners facing Germany or Paraguay in the Round of 16.
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