England claimed the bronze medal in a delirious 6-4 victory over France at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, a match that lurched from a first-half procession to a second-half siege and ended as the highest-scoring third-place playoff in World Cup history. Declan Rice opened the scoring after 134 seconds with a long-range strike, and Ezri Konsa headed in a corner to make it 2-0 before Bukayo Saka struck twice in eight minutes — first from a rebound, then a crisp finish from Eberechi Eze’s pass — to send England in 4-0 ahead at the interval. The first half was so one-sided that French media later described it as “catastrophic,” a word Didier Deschamps himself used in a pitch-side interview.

France’s response after the break was immediate and ferocious. Deschamps made four substitutions, introducing Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola, Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Digne, and within three minutes Kylian Mbappé had swept home Michael Olise’s through-ball. Barcola then drove inside the near post after a Mbappé pass, and when Mbappé exchanged a one-two with Olise to fire a left-footed shot past Dean Henderson in the 66th minute, the score was 4-3 and the contest had been turned on its head. That second goal was Mbappé’s 22nd in World Cup finals, moving him past Lionel Messi as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer, and his 10th of the 2026 edition, giving him a two-goal cushion in the Golden Boot race.

England, visibly drained after a more taxing travel schedule and extra-time in earlier rounds, regained their footing only in the closing stages. Malo Gusto’s foul on Djed Spence allowed Saka to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 87th minute, making him only the fourth Englishman to score a World Cup treble. Dembélé curled in a fourth for France deep into stoppage time, but Jude Bellingham, a substitute, dribbled through the French defence to score England’s sixth with the final kick of the match. The ten goals made it the first World Cup fixture to reach double figures since Hungary’s 10-1 win over El Salvador in 1982, and Olise’s two assists took his tournament tally to seven, breaking Pelé’s single-edition record of six set in 1970.

For England, the bronze represents their best performance at a global finals since the 1966 triumph, and manager Thomas Tuchel, who had faced sharp criticism after the semi-final defeat to Argentina, described the result as “the first step to closing the gap” to the elite. The match also marked the end of Deschamps’ 14-year tenure as France coach, a period that yielded the 2018 World Cup and a 2022 final appearance. Mbappé’s individual milestones, meanwhile, leave the Golden Boot and the all-time scoring record in a state of suspense: Messi, with eight goals and 21 career World Cup strikes, can reclaim both when Argentina face Spain in Sunday’s final.