World Cup Roundup: Dembélé does it by himself; Spain scrape by again

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The day was to be defined by Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé going head-to-head at the World Cup, with Lamine Yamal facing his biggest test of the tournament yet. It ended with Haaland sitting on the bench, Mbappé and Yamal not scoring, and Ousmane Dembélé stealing the show.

Here’s everything you might have missed on Day 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup:

THE BEST OF THE DAY

Today’s Moment

Ousmane Dembélé was absolutely unguardable in France’s 4-1 win against Norway on Friday at Boston Stadium. The 2025 Ballon d’Or winner scored a first-half hat-trick to take his tally for the tournament to four goals, one short of a tournament-high. Dembélé had gone 19 previous major international tournament matches without scoring a goal before France’s last game; he now has four in the last two.

Today’s goal

Pape Gueye has not started a match for Senegal at the 2026 FIFA World Cup; that may not be the case for much longer, with Senegal successfully progressing to the round of 16.

In 33 minutes against Iraq, Gueye scored two goals and recorded an assist. He finished the game with the highest number of assists on the team (3) despite coming on as a substitute in the 56th minute. Super sub.

Today’s Assist

Nicolas Raskin and Romelu Lukaku both added in the 85th minute. A minute later, the two joined for Belgium’s fourth goal of the night as Lukaku drove it home. Talk about instant impact.

Today’s Rescue

Any hopes Norway had of mounting a comeback against France were dashed when Les Bleus goalkeeper Mike Maignan denied Jørgen Strand Larsen from the penalty spot. Maignan is the second French goalkeeper to save a World Cup penalty – excluding shootouts – after Joel Bats against Zico in the quarter-final against Brazil in 1986.

Norway vs France

France won Group I and will play a third-place team from Group F or G. Norway finished second and will play Ivory Coast on June 30 in Arlington.
France won all three of its group games in a single World Cup for just the second time, after 1998. It is the fourth time in a row that France has topped its group, one more than in its previous 12 group stage appearances.
Dembélé’s first-half hat-trick is the first at a World Cup since Oleg Salenko in 1994, and the second-earliest 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 (two in 1958) and Mbappé (one in 2022).

(Photo by Daniel Castelo Branco/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

France is the first team since Poland in 1974 to have two players (Mbappé and Dembélé) score four or more goals in a single group stage at a World Cup (five by Andrzej Szarmach and four by Grzegorz Lato, first group stage).
Friday’s game was the 15th World Cup start for Mbappé. He is the youngest player (27 years and 188 days old) to make 15 starts in World Cup history and is just two starts shy of equaling Raphaël Varane for the most World Cup starts of any French player ever.

Senegal vs. Iraq

Senegal finished third in the group and will wait to see if they advance as one of the eight best third-placed teams. Senegal are looking to make it to consecutive World Cup knockout stages for the first time ever.
Iraq became the fourth nation to lose its first six World Cup matches. Iraq have been outscored 16-2 in their two World Cup matches.
Senegal’s Ismaïla Sarr, Pape Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye all scored and assisted for Senegal vs. Iraq. It is the first time a team has had three players achieve that feat in a World Cup match since Germany in its 7-1 win over Brazil in 2014 (Toni Kroos, Sami Khedira, Thomas Müller).

(Photo by Ezra Shaw – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Sarr became the first Senegal player to both score and assist in a World Cup match, and is now also the outright top scorer for Senegal at the World Cup with four goals.
Senegal’s Iliman Ndiaye became the first player in World Cup history to come on as a substitute and then score a goal, assist a goal, have five touches in the opposition box and make five dribbles.

Uruguay vs Spain

Spain won Group H with seven points (2W-1D-0L) and will play Group J runners-up on July 2 in Los Angeles. Spain have now gone unbeaten in the World Cup group stage seven times before (1950, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2018).
Uruguay have been eliminated from advancing to the knockout stage. Uruguay have gone winless in World Cup group stage four times now (1974, 1986, 2002 and 2026).
Spain is now unbeaten in 33 straight matches (24W-9D-0L) since March 2024, the second-longest unbeaten run in team history, trailing only a 35-match streak snapped by the USA in June 2009 in the Confederations Cup semi-finals.
It is the first time in the history of the World Cup that Spain completed the group stage of a World Cup without conceding a single goal.
With Lamine Yamal starting, Spain remain unbeaten at 17W-6D-0L.

Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia

Cape Verde became the first World Cup debutants to make it past the group stage since Slovakia in 2010.
Cape Verde is the smallest nation by population size (approximately 525,000) ever to progress to the World Cup knockout stage.
Vozinha is the third goalkeeper to record more World Cup clean sheets after turning 40, joining Peter Shilton (3) and Dino Zoff (2).

(Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia has been eliminated from advancing.
Cape Verde is the first team to advance from the group stage of a World Cup with three draws since Chile in 1998.

New Zealand v Belgium

Belgium won Group G and will play a third-place team from Group A, I or J in Seattle on July 1.
New Zealand were eliminated from the tournament with a loss. It ended the tournament with one point.
Kevin De Bruyne is the first player in Belgium’s history to score in three different World Cups (2014, 2018 and 2026). He is also now the oldest Belgian to score at a World Cup at the age of 34 years and 363 days.
Romelu Lukaku scored his sixth World Cup goal, passing Marc Wilmots for the most by any Belgian in World Cup history.
Elijah Just scored his third goal of the tournament. He is New Zealand’s all-time leading goalscorer at the World Cup.

Egypt vs Iran

Egypt finished second in Group G and will play Australia on July 3 in Arlington. This is the first time Egypt has progressed to the knockout stage of a World Cup, except for the 1934 World Cup, which had no group stage.
Iran finished third in Group G and will have to wait and see if they advance as one of the top eight third-placed teams. Iran have never made it out of the group stage in their six previous World Cup appearances.
Emam Ashour scored his second career goal for Egypt. His first two goals for Egypt have come in this World Cup.
Ramin Rezaeian scored his second World Cup goal of the tournament and the third of his career. With his three goals and one assist in the World Cup, he now has the most goal contributions of any Iranian player in World Cup history with four.
Iran remains winless all-time (0W-5D-11L) at the World Cup when conceding first.