Sublime Ousmane Dembele hat-trick shows just why France are World Cup favourites | OneFootball

While everyone was looking for two other stars, Ousmane Dembele went supernova.

And yet in defying all of the narrative about Kylian Mbappe and the absent Erling Haaland to propel this World Cup of individuals, France’s hat-trick scorer may have actually started to tell the story of this team.

If one doesn’t get you, the other will. That doesn’t just apply to Dembele or Mbappe, however, but also the effervescent Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola and Desire Doue, who added a fourth here in Foxborough.

Maybe it’s appropriate that the prospective champions display such super-abundance in the country famous for it.

It certainly felt fitting that the reigning Ballon D’Or winner would step up in this vaunted race for the Golden Boot, when hopes for this box-office bout between Mbappe and Haaland had been dashed by Norway’s approach.

The merits of Stale Solbakken’s controversial move to rest all 10 of his outfield players for this 4-1 defeat, when they still could have finished first, will only be revealed with the next results.

And while there is actually some team spirit value in ensuring all of your squad get to experience minutes on the pitch at a World Cup, the travelling fans who paid hundreds of thousands of Norwegian Krone to be in “Boston” (actually Foxborough, miles away) might not have seen it that way.

There were chants of “we want Haaland” early in the game. Everyone instead got to see a different show, rather than the showdown.

Dembele turned it on, scoring a 25-minute first-half hat-trick. The most remarkable thing was how similar the goals were, almost all of them involving the forward turning inside to smash the ball with his left to Egil Selvik’s right.

The pick of them was still the first, which came after just seven minutes and set a distinctive pace.

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France's Ousmane Dembele celebrates scoring their third goal (Reuters)

It was also set up by a supreme Mbappe pass, the Real Madrid forward personifying this attack’s ability to do another thing just when you were expecting something else. You could say the same about Olise’s passes and Doue’s movement, the latter claiming his first World Cup goal late on to ensure it rightly wasn’t all about Dembele.

With the forward hitting three and Mbappe failing to score at all, it actually put Dembele right up there on the scoring charts with his teammate to duly drive some other big numbers.

France are the first team since Poland 1974 to have two players hit four each in the group stage, the duo matching Grzegorz Lato and Andrzej Szarmach.

This expanded tournament also becomes the first World Cup - maybe inevitably - to have five players score four or more in the group stage.

That race may drive the route to the trophy itself.

Norway are now notionally on the easier side of the draw, even if that is highly debatable. France may have a potential path to the final involving Germany, Netherlands or Morocco and then Spain. Whatever the outcome, France don’t look like they care. Nor should they.

We all knew of their immense talent, of course, but this was another match where they showed it can overcome so much - even their own defensive flaws. Jorgen Strand Larsen had a penalty saved by Mike Maignan, to go with Thelo Aasgard's superb finish.

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Thelo Aasgaard of Norway celebrates with Andreas Schjelderup (Getty)

The low-stakes nature of the match deepened a surprising porousness for Didier Deschamps’ side, with the French coach absent to attend his mother's funeral, and the performance might have at least afforded him some solace during an especially difficult time. The French federation revealed, somewhat shockingly, that their squad couldn’t wear armbands in her honour after making a request to Fifa.

The team instead used this win.

Amid such solemnity, though, there is almost a satirical point to make.

Running forward in this French attack must be like going into a Whole Foods here in the United States. You’re overwhelmed by the choice, that super abundance.

That doesn’t come from capitalism, but long-term social choices that France’s sporting infrastructure have made.

Facilities have been installed in every area of the country by local governments, the potential amplified by scores of immigrant communities.

Hence Paris has become one of the three most fertile areas for footballers in the world, alongside south London and Sao Paulo.

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France hit four against Norway to win Group I (Reuters)

Consequently, these attackers know best how to use that choice. The expression of ability was often breathtaking here.

Given the technique on show, and how France have long illustrated “best practice” approaches in how to actually hone all of this talent, it is kind of remarkable that the last two days have been dominated by a Scottish debate over the favouring of physique over technical ability.

These were arguments that countries like France and Spain banished years ago.

There is nevertheless another surprise to that.

Given all of this talent, given that France is one of the wealthiest western European countries, it is remarkable their domestic league is so poor relative to its resources.

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France's Ousmane Dembele celebrates with Adrien Rabiot after picking up the match ball thanks to his hat-trick (Reuters)

And yet that might well add to the strength of this team.

Dembele, Doue, Barcola all come into this tournament so fresh.

The fact they have Dembele smashing in goals out of nowhere might suddenly be a source of concern for Thomas Tuchel given he is utilising the comparatively more modest Noni Madueke, but part of that is because of the sheer accumulation of minutes over the past few years.

Again, France won’t care about that.

This is suddenly looking like their year, because they have so many stars that can go supernova at any moment.