England finished third at the FIFA World Cup after beating France 6-4 in a thrilling playoff on Saturday, their best result at the tournament since 1966.
Bukayo Saka stole the show with a hat trick as England held off France’s second-half comeback in a 10-goal contest, the highest-scoring World Cup match since Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.
Thomas Tuchel’s men took charge before the break, going 4-0 up through Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa and two goals from Saka. England made the most of a shaky French backline.
France, playing their last game under Didier Deschamps after his 14 years in charge, responded with four halftime changes. Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola were among those brought on as they searched for a way back.
The substitutions worked quickly. Three minutes into the second half, Michael Olise picked out Kylian Mbappé, who fired past Dean Henderson with a first-time left-footed finish. Six minutes later, Mbappé set up Barcola, who scored inside the near post, before Mbappé grabbed another goal to cut England’s lead to 4-3.
Mbappé’s two goals took his World Cup tally to 22, putting him ahead of Lionel Messi as the leading men’s World Cup scorer. He also tightened his grip on the Golden Boot race before Sunday’s final between Argentina and Spain.
France missed a huge chance to equalise when Olise, who set a World Cup record with seven assists in one tournament, sent his close-range effort wide from 12 yards.
England settled the game late on after Malo Gusto fouled Djed Spence in the box. Saka converted the penalty in the 87th minute to complete his hat trick and become only the fourth Englishman to score three times in a men’s World Cup match.
Dembélé scored again for France, but substitute Jude Bellingham wrapped up the win in stoppage time with a calm finish after driving into the area. The goal also made him the first England player to score seven goals in a single World Cup.
The result gave England some comfort after their semifinal loss to Argentina.
“It is the first medal in 60 years, the best World Cup on foreign soil, so I hope the players can be proud of that in some time,” Tuchel said.
“We are fiercely competitive, so we almost don’t allow ourselves to be proud with third place. Eighteen months ago, we set the highest goal, the highest dream to chase. We were very, very ambitious with our dream to make it to the final and win the World Cup, so it is very, very painful if you miss out. The pain will stay for a while but will go away, the scar will stay. This is how it is in high-level sport.”
“You cannot worship this performance, this mentality today, high enough. We had one day less to prepare, we had thousands and thousands of kilometers more in our bones and bodies, we come from altitude, we come from the heat over time, we come from playing with 10 men, and again we found a way,” he said.
