The third-place playoff is supposed to be the match nobody wants to play. Miami clearly didn’t get the memo. England beat France 6-4 on Saturday night in the wildest bronze medal game in World Cup history — a ten-goal spectacle in which Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick, England nearly threw away a four-goal lead and still won, and Kylian Mbappé walked away with Lionel Messi’s all-time World Cup scoring record.
Four up in 45 minutes
England produced the half of their tournament. Declan Rice opened the scoring after three minutes, Ezri Konsa turned in Rice’s corner on 18, and Saka struck twice before the break — first finishing a counter-attack fed by Marcus Rashford, then again in first-half stoppage time from Eberechi Eze’s pass. At 4-0, the only question seemed to be the final margin.
Mbappé drags France back
What followed was very nearly one of the great World Cup comebacks. Mbappé pounced three minutes after the restart from Michael Olise’s pass, Bradley Barcola made it 4-2 on 54 with Mbappé the provider, and when Mbappé swept in Olise’s second assist of the night on 66, a stunned stadium was suddenly watching a one-goal game.
Saka settles it — then Bellingham seals it
England needed a hero and found the same one three times. On 87 minutes Saka converted a penalty to complete his hat-trick, and after Ousmane Dembélé pulled France back to 5-4 in stoppage time, Jude Bellingham raced clear on a stunning solo run in the eighth added minute to finish it at 6-4. Ten goals, a frantic finale — and a bronze medal that gives England their best World Cup finish since they won the trophy in 1966. After losing the 2022 quarter-final to France, the Miami rematch went the other way.
The record changes hands — for now
Mbappé’s double moved him to 22 World Cup goals, one clear of Messi’s 21 — just 26 days after Messi had taken the all-time record from Miroslav Klose. It also stretched his lead in this tournament’s Golden Boot race to 10 goals against Messi’s eight. Olise, with two more assists, is credited by match reports with a record seven for a single World Cup. And here is the twist: Messi gets the last word, or at least the chance of one. In tonight’s final against Spain in New York (8pm UK), he needs two goals to level Mbappé’s Golden Boot tally — and three to snatch the all-time record straight back.
France, beaten 2-0 by Spain in the semi-final, go home fourth. England, who fell 2-1 to Argentina, leave with bronze — and with Saka’s name on one of the most extraordinary games a World Cup has ever staged.