Ousmane Dembele scored a stunning first-half hat-trick as France cruised into the World Cup knockout stage as winners of Group I.Norway made 10 changes to the starting XI that beat Senegal in their previous game, including resting their star striker Erling Haaland. The game had been billed as a battle between Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, but it was Dembele who stole the show with his three goals, before Desire Doue added a late goal to make it 4-1.The 2022 finalists France, who were led by Guy Stephan at the Gillette Stadium because Didier Deschamps was back home mourning the death of his mother, were in control from the start, going 2-0 up in 20 minutes.Norway hit back immediately after France’s second goal, though, scoring from the restart through Thelo Aasgaard. But in the 32nd minute, Dembele completed his hat-trick with a wicked finish into the far corner.The win means that France will almost certainly face Sweden in New York on June 30, before a possible last-16 clash with Germany in Philadelphia on July 4. Norway, meanwhile, will play Ivory Coast in Dallas on June 30, and if they win that then either Brazil or Japan in New York on July 5.In the other match in Group I, Senegal secured a resounding 5-0 win against Iraq to give them a chance of advancing as one of the eight best third-placed teams.James Horncastle, Mark Carey and Jordan Campbell analyse the key talking points…This was the Ousmane Dembele showIf there is a symbol, other than Luis Enrique, of the change of mentality at PSG, it is Ousmane Dembele. The photo of him staring down Yann Sommer with the intention of pressing the Inter goalkeeper in the 2025 Champions League final was indicative of a complete shift in his approach to the game. Dembele’s preparedness to chase down opponents and make PSG a team by leading from the front was rewarded not only with a first Champions League title. He retained it in Budapest in May as the reigning Ballon d’Or holder.Since Enrique began using him as Kylian Mbappe’s replacement at centre-forward, Dembele has shown a new determined side to himself. He scored nearly as many goals under Enrique at PSG as he did at Rennes, Dortmund and PSG combined. But he has rarely delivered for his national team. Dembele’s goal against Iraq in Philadelphia earlier in the group was his first in 20 appearances in major tournaments.His overall return, going into Friday’s game against Norway, was unimpressive; eight goals and six assists in 61 caps for les Bleus. The French media demanded more. Bixente Lizarazu, the 1998 World Cup winner, wrote of the need to “save private Dembele” in his L’Equipe column. Dembele must have read it with his morning cafe au lait and croissant.Jules Kounde celebrates with Dembele during the Norway game (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Winslow Townson)The best version of Dembouz showed up at Foxboro. He offered a reminder of how difficult he is to read for goalkeepers and defenders. You never know if he is going to shoot with his left or his right. To him, it makes no difference. And to think it took him almost four years to score his first three goals for France…Here he completed a 32-minute first half off a combined xG of just 0.13 for all three shots. It was the second earliest hat-trick in World Cup history after pub quiz answer Erich Probst for Austria against Czechoslovakia in 1954.As if Mbappe and the in-form Michael Olise weren’t already enough for opponents to reckon with, Dembele translating his club form to performances like this for his country only further underlines France’s status as favourites to reach a third final in a row.James HorncastleHow did Dembele score three goals from those chances?Dembele’s first-half hat-trick was as good a treble as you could ever wish to see. According to analysis by Opta, it also had the second-lowest expected goals rating of any treble scored at World Cups between 1966 and the present day.A quick explanation: expected goals — commonly known as xG — is a metric that measures the probability a specific shot will result in a goal.Today, Dembele’s treble came from an xG of just 0.19. To contextualise that, it made him one of just two players in the last 60 years to score a World Cup hat-trick from an xG rating of less than 0.6.It’s esteemed company. At number five on that list is Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, whose 1982 hat-trick for West Germany against Chile came from an xG of 0.98.