France Dembele Hat Trick Beats Norway 4-1 as Cape Verde Stun Uruguay and Make Knockout Stage on Debut

[Kev5]

Friday's World Cup action produced two major stories. France dismantled a rotated Norway side 4-1 with Ousmane Dembele scoring a first-half hat trick before Desire Doue added a late fourth, sending France through as Group I winners with nine points from three games and a plus-eight goal difference. The performance, built on France's astonishing attacking depth with Mbappe, Dembele, Doue and the bench options still available, has fuelled talk of them as the tournament favourites.

The bigger football story was in Group H. Cape Verde drew 0-0 with Saudi Arabia in Houston while Spain beat Uruguay 1-0 in Guadalajara, sending Cape Verde into the round of 32 in their debut World Cup appearance. The island nation of just over 500,000 people becomes the first team since Slovakia in 2010 to advance in their debut tournament. They did not win a single game, drawing all three, but their discipline and goalkeeping from Vozinha, who stopped Spain in game one and kept Saudi Arabia out in the decider, was remarkable. They face Messi's Argentina in Miami on July 3 in a David and Goliath round of 32 matchup that the neutral cannot wait for.

Uruguay's elimination was unexpected. They are two-time world champions and arrived with a squad that included Darwin Nunez, Rodrigo Bentancur and Federico Valverde. Marcelo Bielsa's side drew with Saudi Arabia in their opener, drew with Cape Verde and then fell to a single goal from Spain, confirming the modern World Cup's expanded format produces genuinely unpredictable group stage outcomes.

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