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Norway manager Stale Solbakken made 10 changes after two group victories, including resting Manchester City forward Haaland.

But into the narrative void stepped Dembele, who delivered the second-fastest men’s World Cup hat-trick ever with three goals of the purest quality. Dembele moves on to four goals in the tournament after also scoring in the 3-0 win over Iraq on Monday, and his display here will perhaps ease some of the pressure on captain Kylian Mbappe to always be France’s match-winner.

It was an emotionally charged day for Les Bleus, who had to play this match without coach Didier Deschamps after he returned to France to attend his mother’s burial.

France completely dominated the early stages and deservedly broke through in the seventh minute. Having won the ball in Norway’s half, Mbappe spread it wide right to Dembele in space. The Ballon d’Or winner squared up his marker and slammed home past Egil Selvik. It was 2-0 in the 20th minute when Dembele completed a lightning counter-attack by cutting off the right-hand side on to his wizardly left foot and whipped a curling shot into the far corner.

Norway struck back within 79 seconds, the French defence declining to respond to an attack straight from the kick-off which ended in Rangers attacker Thelo Aasgaard sweeping the ball past a wrong-footed Mike Maignan.

But Dembele was far from done, as he moved himself into contention as the tournament’s top scorer with his fourth goal when he again cut on to his left foot and, with four surrounding defenders, curled another effort past Norway reserve keeper Selvik.

Dembele was subbed off after 65 minutes as the tempo dropped after the break, but his Paris St-Germain team-mate Desire Doue stepped up to add a fourth in the 94th minute with a looping header.

Dembele scored a first-half hat-trick as France beat Norway Norway manager Stale Solbakken made 10 changes after two group victories, including resting Manchester City forward Haaland. But into the narrative void stepped Dembele, who delivered the

Already the winner of Group A, Mexico will play again at Azteca Stadium on Tuesday in a round-of-32 match against an opponent to be determined.

Mexico’s previous best group-stage performance was two wins and one draw, achieved in 1986 and 2002, both featuring Javier Aguirre, the first as a midfielder and the second as El Tri’s coach.

Mexico already qualified for the next round, gave coach Javier Aguirre an opportunity to rotate his squad and left-back Mateo Chavez, one of five players brought into the starting line-up from their previous fixture, showed superb composure to net his first international goal just after half-time.

Teenager Gilberto Mora, another player given his first start of the tournament, impressed in midfield and supplied the pass that led to Mexico’s second goal, which was scored by Julian Quinones in the 61st minute.

Aged 17 years and 253 days, Mora became the sixth-youngest player in history to start a men’s World Cup match and the youngest player to do so for Mexico, while at age 40, the respected goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, was brought on as a late substitute.

Ochoa is in his sixth World Cup campaign, matching Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, although he has only appeared in four of them as he was an unused squad member at the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.

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It was a game which rarely produced much excitement as South Africa were content with sitting back and waiting to hit their opponents on the counter-attack, while South Korea lacked quality in the final third. Bafana Bafana, playing at the tournament for the first time since South Africa hosted it in 2010, were widely written off after their 2:0 loss to Group A winners Mexico.

South Korea dominated much of the ball and it was the African side, who were tricky to deal with on the break, who produced the best opportunities throughout and they deserved their goal. They rarely managed to threaten South Africa, with a tame Oh Hyeon-gyu header and an early Lee Kang-in strike among their rare chances.

Son, who was left on the bench, came on at the start of the second half, one of three changes made by coach Hong as he sought to change the script.

The greatest moments of jubilation inside the stadium had come from green-clad Mexico fans watching on as neutrals as they celebrated their side’s goals against Czech Republic.

South Africa seized their moment, with Tshepang Moremi crossing to Maseko, who this time kept his cool, firing home inside the near post in the 63rd minute.

South Korea pushed hard in the closing stages but ran out of time, meaning South Africa will face cohosts Canada in Los Angeles on June 28. Mexico topped the group with nine points after winning all three of their matches.

South Africa beat South Korea to reach World Cup knockouts for the first It was a game which rarely produced much excitement as South Africa were content with sitting back and waiting to hit their opponents on the counter-attack, while South Korea lacked quality in the