England defeated France 6-4 in the FIFA World Cup third-place playoff on Sunday (July 19), securing third place at the tournament and recording the nation's best World Cup finish since winning the title in 1966.
England manager opted for extensive changes to his starting lineup. Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, all of whom had played key roles during the tournament, began the match on the bench.
France also reshuffled its defence and midfield, while leading scorer Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise retained their places in the starting XI. Ousmane Dembele was named among the substitutes.
England took the lead just three minutes into the match when captain Declan Rice won possession near the halfway line, drove forward and fired a long-range shot into the net from outside the penalty area.
In the 18th minute, Rice delivered a corner that was headed home by defender Ezri Konsa to double England's advantage.
Following the first cooling break, Marcus Rashford tested Mike Maignan with a powerful long-range effort that the French goalkeeper tipped behind for a corner. Shortly afterwards, Rashford and Bukayo Saka led a counterattack, with the first two attempts blocked before Saka tapped into an empty net in the 37th minute.
Deep into first-half stoppage time, Saka scored again to give England a 4-0 lead at the break, marking the most goals France had ever conceded in the first half of a World Cup match.
France head coach Didier Deschamps responded by making four substitutions at half-time, and the changes quickly paid off.
In the 48th minute, Michael Olise set up Mbappe, who scored with a left-footed finish for his ninth goal of the tournament.
Substitute Bradley Barcola pulled another goal back in the 54th minute, before Mbappe struck again in the 66th minute to reduce the deficit further.
Saka then completed his hat-trick to restore England's cushion. Dembele and substitute Bellingham each added a goal later in the match, bringing the final score to 6-4.
Mbappe has now scored 10 goals at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, extending his lead over Lionel Messi by two goals in the race for the tournament's Golden Boot.
His World Cup career tally also reached 22 goals, moving him past Messi to the top of the competition's all-time scoring chart.
Since winning the World Cup in 1966, England had reached the semi-finals on three previous occasions without advancing to the final. The team lost the third-place playoff to Italy in 1990 and to Belgium in 2018. Their third-place finish at the 2026 tournament marks England's best World Cup performance in six decades.
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