Posted on 07/18/2026 8:14:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Bukayo Saka's hat trick helped England survive a dramatic second-half comeback to beat France 6-4 in Saturday's chaotic third-place playoff and secure their best finish at a World Cup since 1966.
England were up 4-0 at the break as a shambolic France side was dismantled through goals from Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa and two Saka strikes.
Both teams made seven changes following their semifinal defeats, but in his final match in charge after 14 years at the helm, France's Didier Deschamps introduced four substitutes at halftime, including Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola, in an attempt to trigger a response.
It began just three minutes after the restart. Michael Olise found Kylian Mbappé in space and his first-time left-foot finish beat Dean Henderson.
Six minutes later, Mbappé turned provider, sending Barcola clear to finish inside Henderson's near post, before Mbappé finished another France chance to score his 10th goal of the tournament.
Kylian Mbappé leapfrogged Lionel Messi on the all-time World Cup goal-scoring chart by getting his 21st and 22nd career goals in the competition during France's thrilling 6-4 third-place playoff defeat to England on Saturday in Miami Gardens, Florida.
France endured a nightmare first half as they trailed 4-0 after the opening 45 minutes. But Mbappé's first-time finish in the 48th minute prompted a thrilling comeback from Les Bleus, with Bradley Barcola cutting England's lead to two before the France captain found the back of the net again in the 66th minute.
Olise, whose seven assists in a single World Cup is another record, missed a glorious chance to equalize, somehow side-footing wide from 12 yards out, before England finally steadied themselves.
Djed Spence burst into the box on the overlap and was brought down by Malo Gusto. Saka converted the 87th-minute penalty to become only the fourth men's player to score a World Cup hat trick for England.
There was still time for France to respond again as Dembélé cut in on his left foot to finish, but substitute Jude Bellingham had the final say, driving into the box before finishing from close range to secure a memorable win.
Bellingham's late strike made him the first Englishman to score seven goals in a single World Cup.
The combined 10 goals were the most scored in a World Cup match since Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.
The wounds from Wednesday's semifinal collapse against Argentina were still raw for Thomas Tuchel on a night that started with boos for the heavily criticized England manager and ended in a breathless bronze medal.
"It is the first medal in 60 years, the best World Cup on foreign soil, so I hope the players can be proud on that in some time," he told a postmatch news conference.
"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," he added. "We had one day less day 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."
How about this? The winner of the third-place game gets a 3 or 6 point conference bonus that goes towards qualification for the next World Cup?
Or even more bold, the top 3 teams in this World Cup just plain old automatically qualify for the next World Cup?
“Here’s an idea... Instead of a Pro Bowl, the NFL should have a Loser Bowl. The team that looses the NFC takes on the team that looses the AFC to determine who the biggest loser is.”
It has happened. Before the Super Bowl era, the NFL held a third-place playoff game called the Playoff Bowl (officially the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) from 1961 to 1970.
It was a bad idea and is still a bad idea.
The problem with that is that at some point, you will get the tactical coach and you're quickly back to the 1-0 or 2-1 scores.
It’s soccer.
Nobody cares.
RE: I didn’t follow the cup events...did New Zealand compete?
Yes, they lost to Belgium and Egypt and drew with Iran. As a result, they got eliminated early on.
RE: It’s soccer. Nobody cares.
Yep, except the billions of people who watch it…
I think the question meant to address Platini’s family ancestry.
Yeah it’s like seeing joggers chasing a ball.
Mbappé is Christian.
Yeah, they “held off” France, like France had a real chance of winning.
Did the author even watch the match?
Yeah, billions of foreigners and a handful of democrat Americans,
It’s soccer, and nobody cares.
Yep, billions of people worldwide is nobody.
27.5 million U.S. ( not foreign ) viewers is nobody.
54+ million viewers tuned in across North America is nobody.
A reasonable estimate is that between 3.8 million and 4.3 million of the first 5 million spectators were Americans (either U.S. residents or U.S.-based ticket purchasers). This despite average ticket prices between $120 and $1,200 for standard matches, while high‑demand knockout games averaged $1,500–$4,000 on resale. That’s nobody.
Reuters reported that Americans “flocked for the spectacle,” with stadiums 99.6% full and demand driven primarily by U.S. buyers rather than foreign travelers. Yeah, nobody cares.
Let’s redefine the word “nobody” while we’re at it.
Give it up.
It’s soccer. Nobody cares.
Hours of boredom watching foreigners kick a ball to each other and maybe get one ball in a goal.
Watching the grass grow on the field is more exciting than what is going on on top of it.
It’s soccer, and nobody cares.
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Dont tell! they’d banish us - you know!
How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell your name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!
-Emily Dickinson
I love how the FReepers who say they aren’t interested in something seem to constantly seek out that which they profess not to be interested in order to comment on it.
I’m not in to cycling. When I see the topic come up, I scroll past it. I don’t spend my time trying to argue with someone who is a cycling enthusiast. Total waste of time.
It gets old after a while lol
Yes.
RE: It’s soccer. Nobody cares.
I love it when I see someone who says he doesn’t care BOTHERS to come to a thread about soccer to tell fans of the game that billions ( including Americans ) follow that he doesn’t care.
It was 4-0 at halftime. Maybe the French team was inspired by John Belushi’s immortal words in “Animal House”: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” They almost tied it in the second half.
Fitting in Miami. From 1960 to 1969, the NFL ended its season with a third-place game at the Orange Bowl, known as the Bert Bell Benefit. The funds raised in the Bert Bell Benefit are still used for modern NFL players in the form of seeding money for their pension funds they collect today. Coaches used the Bell to experiment with players for the next season and the NFL began the grand experiment of microphones on coaches in the 1965 season game that changed the way sport is viewed.
The strange thing? While the NFL made the emphasis on coaches and players, FIFA still focuses on fan reactions after goals, not the look of coaches and assistants. A few years ago, during Super Bowl coverage, a UK media outlet praised NFL Films for going side the practices and in-game processes while noticing how different things were such as the Manchester United treble anniversary. In the United anniversary, you heard from fans but no in-game discussions or action from the floor. In the NFL Films documentaries, you saw how things as it happened with reaction.
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