England ended their FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign with a wild 6-4 victory over France in the third-place play-off at Miami Stadium on 18 July. Bukayo Saka's hat-trick powered England to bronze in the first 48-team World Cup and gave them their best finish since winning the tournament in 1966.
England were four goals up at half-time after Saka struck twice, with Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa also scoring. France's response after the break was ferocious: Kylian Mbappé scored twice, while Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembélé added goals. But Saka converted a late penalty to complete his treble and Jude Bellingham finished the scoring in stoppage time.
The 10-goal contest surpassed the previous record for a World Cup third-place match, France's 6-3 win over West Germany in 1958. It was also the tournament's highest-scoring fixture since 1982, a remarkable coda to a match often treated as an afterthought.
Saka's three goals supplied the headline, but Bellingham's seventh of the tournament was another landmark. It set a new single-World-Cup scoring record for an England player. Rice's early control and Konsa's finish gave Thomas Tuchel's side the platform to withstand France's second-half surge.
Mbappé's brace carried him to 10 goals at this World Cup and 22 in World Cup finals football, moving him ahead of Lionel Messi's 21. France could not convert that individual milestone into a farewell win for Didier Deschamps, whose 14-year tenure as head coach ended with the match.
For England, the bronze medals do not erase the 2-1 semi-final defeat to Argentina on 15 July, but they offer a tangible reward from an eventful tournament. The squad leaves North America having shown the attacking ceiling that made the final stages so compelling—and with Saka's Miami night now part of its World Cup history.
World Cup 2026 context: England finished third after the 6-4 result in Miami Gardens, Florida. Argentina and Spain meet in the final at New York New Jersey Stadium on 19 July at 15:00 local time.