Published on 19/07/2026 - 9:50 GMT+2

England beat France 6-4 in a surprisingly tense and World Cup third-place playoff, with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat trick as the Three Lions secured their best finish at the tournament since winning the title in 1966.

Saka struck in the 37th minute, again in first-half stoppage time and completed his second England hat trick from the penalty spot in the 87th minute. Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa also found the net as England raced into a 4-0 halftime lead before surviving a relentless French fightback.

"I hope that the players can be proud of that in some time," England coach Thomas Tuchel said.

"We are fiercely competitive, so we almost don't allow ourselves to be proud of third place because 18 months ago we set the highest goal. We set the highest dream to chase, and we were very, very ambitious with our dream to make it to the final and win the World Cup. So it's very, very painful if you miss out."

Both teams had admitted beforehand they would rather have been playing in Sunday's final, but the consolation match still produced a host of records.

It was the highest-scoring World Cup match since Hungary's 10-1 victory over El Salvador in 1982, while the 10 goals were the most ever scored in a World Cup third-place playoff.

Jude Bellingham rounded off the scoring deep into stoppage time with his seventh goal of the tournament, the most by an England player at a single World Cup.

France captain Kylian Mbappé scored twice in the second half to move past Lionel Messi's career World Cup scoring tally. The 27-year-old now has 22 World Cup goals overall and leads the Golden Boot race with 10 goals at this tournament, two ahead of Messi.

Messi will have one final opportunity to overtake Mbappé in Sunday's World Cup final, when defending champion Argentina faces Spain in East Rutherford, New Jersey.