England defeated France 6-4 in a thrilling World Cup third-place play-off on Saturday, with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat-trick and Kylian Mbappe becoming the tournament’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Saka starred for the Three Lions with three goals, while Jude Bellingham became the first England player to score seven goals at a single World Cup as the two sides produced a pulsating 10-goal contest.
Despite the entertaining spectacle, both teams will leave the tournament disappointed after seeing their title ambitions ended in the semi-finals. France were beaten by Spain, while England suffered a late collapse against Argentina.
Saka described the victory over Didier Deschamps’ side as “amazing” but admitted England’s semi-final defeat remained painful.
“When you lose there’s always going to be noise, when you win there’s going to be noise,” he said.
“It’s how you react to it, how you use it as fuel and today we finished strong, so that’s all we could really do and we’ve done it.”
Both managers rotated their squads in the sweltering Miami heat, with several regular starters beginning the match on the bench.
England raced into an early lead when Declan Rice struck from distance in the third minute before Ezri Konsa doubled the advantage with a header.
Saka made it 3-0 after a swift counterattack before adding his second in first-half stoppage time to leave France trailing 4-0 at the break.
Deschamps, overseeing his final match in charge of France, described his team’s first-half display as “catastrophic” in an interview with French broadcaster M6 and demanded a response.
He introduced Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola at the start of the second half, and the changes paid immediate dividends.
Mbappe pulled one back with his ninth goal of the tournament to move ahead of Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race before Barcola reduced the deficit further.
Mbappe then scored again from Michael Olise’s pass to take his World Cup tally to 22 goals, becoming the competition’s all-time leading scorer.
France continued to create chances but were punished when Malo Gusto fouled Djed Spence in the penalty area.
Substitute Jude Bellingham handed the ball to Saka, who calmly converted the penalty to complete his hat-trick.
Dembele added France’s fourth late on, but Bellingham capped England’s victory with a superb solo goal to complete the scoring.
The third-place finish represents England’s best World Cup performance since lifting the trophy in 1966.
Deschamps guided France to the World Cup title in 2018 and to the final four years later, but his tenure ended after Les Bleus, who entered the 2026 tournament among the favourites, were eliminated 2-0 by Spain in the semi-finals.
Three-time champions Argentina will face European champions Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
