Norway
FranceThe outcome was decided before kickoff in any meaningful sense. Solbakken's ten changes converted this from a competitive fixture into a calibration exercise for France, and Dembélé — back at full sharpness and no longer managed for minutes — exploited every inch of space the makeshift Norwegian backline offered. The missed Strand Larsen penalty at 1-3 was the last moment the match could have genuinely tightened; Doué's late header merely confirmed what everyone in Gillette Stadium already knew.
Norway
Norway's commitment to squad rotation backfired at the worst possible time. Ståle Solbakken's decision to bench Haaland and Ødegaard — with ten changes to the starting XI — was understandable in theory: progress was already secured and the knockout round matters more than group placing. But it handed Dembélé an unguarded pitch to dismantle. Aasgaard's goal at 21 minutes was a flash of spirit from the reserve side, and Strand Larsen's missed penalty after the break might have complicated France's evening had it gone in. Instead the B team were exposed by the gulf in individual quality, and the 1-4 scoreline will follow Norway into the round of sixteen as a statistic to explain rather than ignore.
France
France were ruthless in the opening half-hour. Dembélé completed a first-half hat-trick in 32 minutes — the first in the World Cup since Oleg Salenko in 1994 — and by the time Aasgaard equalised momentarily at 21 minutes, France were already in third gear. Maignan's save from Strand Larsen's penalty midway through the second half maintained the margin, and Doué's added-time header was the exclamation mark on a performance that was simultaneously brilliant and significantly assisted by a depleted opposition. Ten group-stage goals in three matches is the number that travels; the quality of some of the opposition who produced it is the asterisk.