Soccer
Remember me? Dembele serves reminder that France have more than one attacking superstar
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Only on France could Ousmane Dembélé be an afterthought.
Les Bleus are blessed with arguably the deepest squad of all 48 teams in this World Cup, with superstars like Kylian Mbappé and Michael Olise hogging the spotlight both in the lead-up to the tournament and during the first two match of the group stage.
The breathless devotion to France's two leading men has been well-founded so far, with Mbappé and Olise combining to give us some of the most thrilling attacking football currently on display in North America. Mbappé leapt up to the upper echelons of the Golden Boot race with back-to-back braces, with each of the goals coming in stunning form. And Olise has been the set-up man, dazzling from the right flank as one of the World Cup's elite playmakers.
All the while, Dembélé has quietly added his own quality to the enviable France lineup, although he walked away from the team's opening match with neither a goal or assist in 80 minutes as the French bested Senegal thanks to a second-half onslaught led by Mbappé and Olise. Dembélé's star shone brighter in France's second game, a 3-0 victory over Iraq in which the 29-year-old notched a goal and assist. However, he still played second fiddle to Mbappé on that day as well, as the latter moved into second place on all-time World Cup goals chart thanks to his output against the Iraqis.
With France already through to the knockouts by the time their third group match was scheduled to kick off, all that was left was for Les Bleus to confirm their spot atop Group I with a win over Norway on Friday. Given the way the other two matches had gone for France, it was expected by many that Mbappé and Olise would once again run the show as the French machine rolled on, but Dembélé quickly reminded everyone watching that he, too, was able to take over a match at the highest level.
The PSG man went to work right away, scoring with his right foot in the seventh minute and his left foot in the 20th, completing his hat-trick with another powerful strike just after the half-hour mark as the shell-shocked Norwegian side had little answer for Dembélé's brilliance.
It was the fastest hat-trick of this World Cup so far, and the first time a player scored three times in the first half of a World Cup match since 1994.
In other words, Dembélé not only found a way to lead his team to a crucial 4-1 victory, but he also managed to do so in a manner that will rightfully steal the headlines from his accomplished teammates.
Such is life for a player on this absurd France side, that the reigning Ballon d'Or winner needs to put together a historic outing just to earn himself some much-deserved recognition.
Whatever the case, Dembélé's arrival at the biggest tournament in the world gives France's opposition even more cause for concern.
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