Norway pulls its starters, treats fans to an exhibition match in loss to France in Group I finale

Sport admin June 26, 2026 0 Comments

Norway pulls its starters, treats fans to an exhibition match in loss to France in Group I finale

FOXBOROUGH — A sellout crowd of 64,146 paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars to watch one of the best showdowns of the entire tournament’s group play – France vs. Norway.

A World Cup powerhouse vs. an up-and-comer. Two superstar strikers, France’s Kylian Mbappe vs. Norway’s Erling Haaland. Two teams that began the tournament 2-0 and were fighting Friday for the Group I title.

Of the five World Cup group matches in Foxborough, this was the most expensive ticket and, on paper, the most exciting matchup.

Instead, fans were treated to Week 18 of the NFL season.

France did its part, playing its normal lineup and cruising to a 4-1 win. But Norway brought tanking to the 2026 World Cup. Content to finish second in Group I and face Ivory Coast in the Round of 32, Norway sat Haaland, Arsenal midfielder Martin Ødegaard, and 10 of its 11 starters overall, including goalie Ørjan Nyland.

“We are here to proceed as long as we can,” said Norway manager Ståle Solbakken. “This was not a decision that took us a lot of time to get to.”

Norway’s “B” team showed a little feistiness and scored an impressive goal in the 21st minute by midfielder Thelo Aasgaard, but the end result was predictable — a dominant win by France, the two-time World Cup champs (2018, 1998) and 2022 runners-up.

Solbakken said it was a “no brainer’ to bench his starters. He said the team’s medical staff highlighted five players who were exhausted after Norway’s second match of the tournament last week against Senegal, and the goal was to be at their best for Tuesday against Ivory Coast, not win Group I.

Solbakken didn’t apologize to Norwegian fans who spent thousands of kroner to attend the match in the United States.

“That’s the way it is,” he said. “We have given them a couple of victories and we have given them the opportunity to watch more games, and that’s what we’re here to do at the World Cup.”

Paris Saint-Germain star Ousmane Dembélé notched a hat trick in the first half, scoring in the seventh, 20th and 32nd minutes, with Mbappé assisting on the first two. Dembele’s hat trick was the 57th in World Cup history and the fastest since Austria’s Erich Probst completed one in 24 minutes in 1954.

Midfielder Désiré Doué, another PSG star, completed the scoring with a header four minutes into second-half stoppage time.

France, which has trained at Bentley University in Waltham throughout the tournament, wrapped up group play with a 3-0 record and 9 points. It will face a third-place team Tuesday (potentially Sweden) in New York in the Round of 32.

This year marks Norway’s first World Cup appearance since 1998, and will be the first time advancing to knockout play since then as well. Haaland, who scored four goals in Norway’s first two matches, including two last week in Foxborough, said after picking up its second win that Norway’s mission in group play was complete. He didn’t care about beating France and finishing first.

“We managed to get through, which is incredible, so I couldn’t care too much about that game now,” Haaland said.

France wasn’t sure if Haaland was joking, but apparently he was serious. Scores of Norwegian fans wore blonde Haaland wigs and Vikings helmets and participated in their famous “Row” cheer, but Haaland didn’t so much as poke his head out of the dugout throughout the match.

According to OptaStats, Norway became just the fourth team in World Cup history to swap out 10-plus starters for a match. Resting starters didn’t work out too well for Spain in 2006 (lost in round of 16) or Brazil in 2022 (lost in quarterfinals), but did seem to benefit Belgium in 2018 (third place).

Solbakken and his players apparently didn’t mind that their World Cup road is now tougher as a second-place finisher. Training in Greensboro, N.C., Norway would have played a third-place team in New York with a win Friday. Instead, Norway will travel to Dallas to face Ivory Coast, which won two matches in Group E.

The road is difficult in the knockout round either way. A win Friday would have put Norway in line for a matchup with Germany in Round of 16. Instead, they line up with Brazil. But French assistant manager Guy Stéphan said one reason France opted to play its starters was because of travel logistics.

“We wanted the first spot in this group,” said Stéphan, who subbed for Didier Deschamps, who was away after the death of his mother. “A 45-minute flight is better than 3-4 hours to Dallas.”

After blitzing Norway with three goals and 14 shots in the first half, France dialed it back as well, with just four shots in the second half. Dembélé subbed out in the 65th minute and Mbappé in the 87th, finishing with a game-high four shots.

France goalie Mike Maignan still was impressive despite not facing Norway’s best. Maignan finished with three saves, including a diving stop of a penalty kick in the 50th minute off the foot of Jorgen Strand Larsen, and another diving stop in the 73rd minute.

The exhibition-like vibe of the match didn’t quell the enthusiasm of thousands of French supporters, who danced and chanted “Allez les Bleus!” throughout the match and made a few attempts at The Wave.

“It’s been a great day with a lot of goals and a lot of action,” Stéphan said. “We probably could have scored a bit more goals, but we already scored four.”