World Cup Highlights: Dembélé Shines Alone; Spain Wins Again
June 27, 2026 · Global
Ousmane Dembélé scored a hat-trick in France's win over Norway, while Senegal and Spain also picked up important results at the 2026 World Cup.
Today was supposed to be defined by the battle between Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé at the World Cup, as well as Lamine Yamal facing his biggest test of the tournament. However, it all ended with Haaland sitting on the bench, Mbappé and Yamal failing to score, and Ousmane Dembélé stealing the show. Here's everything you might have missed on Day 16 of the 2026 World Cup:
Best Moment of the Day
Ousmane Dembélé was outstanding in France's 4-1 win over Norway at Boston Stadium. The 2025 Ballon d'Or winner scored a hat-trick in the first half and now has a total of four goals in the tournament, just one behind the leaders. Dembélé had previously not scored for 19 major matches in international tournaments before France's final match; Now he has scored four goals in two matches.
Best Goal of the Day
Pape Gueye has yet to start a game for Senegal at the 2026 World Cup; however, that may soon change, with Senegal successfully progressing to the round of 32. In 33 minutes against Iraq, Gueye scored two goals and provided one assist. He ended the match with the highest goal contributions on the team (3) despite coming on as a substitute in the 56th minute.
Best Assist of the Day
Nicolas Raskin and Romelu Lukaku both came on in the 85th minute. One minute later, the two connected for Belgium's fourth goal of the night as Lukaku scored. Immediate impact.
Today's Best Save
Any hopes Norway had of coming from behind against France were dashed when Les Bleus goalkeeper Mike Maignan saved Jørgen Strand Larsen's penalty. Maignan became the second French goalkeeper to save a penalty in a World Cup — not including shootouts — after Joel Bats against Zico in the 1986 quarter-final against Brazil.
Norway vs. France
France won Group I and will face the third-place team from Group F or G. Norway finished as runners-up and will play Ivory Coast on June 30 in Arlington. France won all three of its group games in a single World Cup for the second time, after 1998. This was the fourth consecutive time France had topped its group, one more than its previous 12 group appearances.
Dembélé's hat-trick in the first half was the first at a World Cup since Oleg Salenko in 1994, and was the second-fastest hat-trick in World Cup history. He is the third player to score a hat-trick for France at a men's World Cup, after Just Fontaine (twice in 1958) and Mbappé (once in 2022).
Senegal vs. Iraq
Senegal finished third in the group and will wait to see if they will progress as one of the eight best third-placed teams. Senegal is attempting to make it to consecutive World Cup knockout stages for the first time. Iraq became the fourth country to lose its first six World Cup matches. Iraq has conceded 16 goals and scored 2 goals in two World Cup appearances.
Ismaïla Sarr, Pape Gueye, and Iliman Ndiaye all scored goals and provided assists for Senegal against Iraq. It was the first time a team had three players do that in a single World Cup match since Germany in their 7-1 win over Brazil in 2014 (Toni Kroos, Sami Khedira, Thomas Müller). Sarr became the first Senegalese player to score and assist in one World Cup match, and is now also the top scorer for Senegal at the World Cup with four goals.
Iliman Ndiaye became the first player in World Cup history to come on as a substitute and then score a goal, provide an assist, make five touches in the opponent's box and complete five dribbles.
Uruguay vs. Spain
Spain won Group H with seven points (2K-1D-0K) and will play the Group J runners-up on July 2 in Los Angeles. Spain have now gone unbeaten in the World Cup group stages seven times before (1950, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2018). Uruguay was eliminated from the possibility of advancing to the knockout stage. Uruguay has now not won a match in the World Cup group stage four times (1974, 1986, 2002 and 2026).
Spain has now not lost 33 consecutive matches (24K-9D-0K) since March 2024, the second-longest unbeaten streak in team history, only beaten by the 35-game streak broken by the United States in June 2009 in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. This is the first time in World Cup history that Spain has finished the group stage without conceding a goal. When Lamine Yamal started, Spain remained unbeaten with 17 wins and 6 draws.