England beat France 6-4 in the World Cup third-place play-off in a match full of goals, with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat-trick and Kylian Mbappe becoming the tournament’s all-time record goalscorer.
France were 4-0 down at half-time but coach Didier Deschamps made substitutions at half-time and Mbappe scored the 22nd World Cup goal of his career,
England hold on to win despite spirited France comeback.
“We have to hold our head high,” Saka said after the match. “When you lose there is always gonna be noise and when you win there is always gonna be noise. It is how you react to it.”
France got going after the restart with Kylian Mbappe’s brace making him the tournament’s all-time leading goalscorer. Bradley Barcola added another to make it 4-3 before conceding a penalty that Saka scored.
Mbappé overtook Lionel Messi for the career World Cup scoring record, netting a pair for France in the third-place match against England to reach 22 goals.
Mbappé has 10 goals in this World Cup, two ahead of Messi in the Golden Boot race, awarded to the tournament’s top scorer.
England were leading France 4-0 when Mbappé turned a shot past keeper Dean Henderson in the 48th minute.
Then, in the 66th, he beat Henderson again, this time with a left-footed strike from about 14 yards to surpass Messi’s career mark of 21 goals. Mbappé got his second and France cut the deficit to 4-3.
The 6-4 score was the most goals scored in a World Cup game since 1982 (Hungary 10-1 El Salvador) and the most ever in a third-place game.
It was a night that started with boos for the much-maligned Thomas Tuchel but ended with a breathless bronze medal, the wounds from Wednesday’s semi-final collapse to Argentina still fresh.
Les Bleus continued to pepper the England goal and the other was scored by substitute Bradley Barcola as Tuchel stared down the barrel of an even greater humiliation than three days ago.
But this England did not move. Saka scored a late penalty to complete his hat-trick and substitute Jude Bellingham held his nerve after Ousmane Dembélé’s stoppage time goal.
