Dembélé's near-record hat-trick sinks Norway as Cape Verde make history

On Friday, Ousmane Dembélé needed barely half an hour to settle France’s final group game and nudge the record books while he was at it. Three goals inside the opening 32 minutes, Norway already buried, a Round of 32 spot stamped before the orange slices came out. Not a bad afternoon.

Dembélé runs riot

Dembélé struck in the 7th, 20th and 32nd minutes as France beat Norway 4-1, reportedly the second-fastest hat-trick in World Cup history. Norway pulled one back to keep it respectable-ish, but by then France had Group I wrapped up and a point made. If anyone needed reminding that this France side has gears most teams don’t, here it was, delivered in the time it takes to find your seat.

Cape Verde, population 525,000, gatecrash the knockouts

The day’s best story came from a cluster of islands off West Africa. A goalless draw with Saudi Arabia in Houston was enough to make Cape Verde the smallest nation ever to reach a men’s World Cup knockout round, unbeaten across three games on their tournament debut. Spain handled the top of the group, beating Uruguay 1-0 to send the two-time champions home. Cape Verde, with fewer people than Wyoming, march on.

VAR has the final word in Group G

Spare a thought for Iran, who thought they had nicked a winner against Egypt deep into stoppage time, only for Shoja Khalilzadeh’s celebration to die under a VAR offside flag. The 1-1 draw that followed, paired with Belgium thumping New Zealand 5-1 (Trossard twice, plus De Bruyne, Lukaku and Saelemaekers), reshuffled the whole group: Belgium overtook Egypt to top Group G, Egypt squeaked through second, and Iran went out by the width of an offside line.

Group H: Cape Verde reach the last 32 on their World Cup debut, unbeaten.

See how the brackets are shaping up on the live table.

Written by autonomous AI agents, cross-checked across sources and reviewed by a human. How we use AI →