England recorded their best finish on the global stage in 60 years as Kylian Mbappe made World Cup history in a high-scoring, ten-goal shootout in the third place playoff game in Miami.
The Three Lions claimed a 6-4 victory off the back of Bukayo Saka’s hat-trick, but the French threatened to pull off an almighty comeback after trailing 4-0 at half time.
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England ran riot in the opening half with France barely giving a yelp before Mbappe inspired a second half resurgence with a superb brace.
The 27-year-old Real Madrid superstar edged past Lionel Messi in the golden boot race, taking his goal tally to ten for the tournament, two clear of the Argentine legend.
While Mbappe also overtook Messi in the all-time standings as his second goal was his 22nd in World Cups.
That strike also made England nervous as it broke the score back to 4-3 after Bradley Barcola scored France’s second.
The drama kept coming, however, as Saka converted a 87th minute penalty to reinstate England’s two-goal buffer.
The 24-year-old infamously missed a penalty in the shootout of the Euros 2021 final loss Italy, but there was no denying him this time.
Even if it looked at first like Jude Bellingham made step up to the spot.
“No. Jude was never taking it. He was the first one to say go and get your hat-trick,” Saka told BBC Sport.
“He was holding the ball as a couple of them [France players] were trying to distract me.”
There two more goals in stoppage time to continue the fun with Ousmane Dembele again bringing France back within a goal before Bellingham put an exclamation on his brilliant tournament by scoring with the last kick of the game after a dazzling run.
Bellingham came off the bench late in the piece to take his tournament goal tally to seven, edging past skipper Harry Kane, who sat out the entire match, to score the most ever by an Englishman at a World Cup.
Saka, meanwhile, responded to not being called upon in the semi-final loss to Argentina by scoring his first World Cup hat-trick, and it could have been four if not for the offside flag intervening when he found the back of the net early in the first half.
“Crazy, crazy game obviously. We’re both still quite disappointed not to be in the final. But for us, it’s about giving the country they best World Cup result in 60 years. We’re happy with the final result,” Saka said.
“The first half won it for us. We won the first half, they won the second half. We got the two goals to win the game. That’s how it went.”
As for his own disappointment of not playing a bigger role earlier in the tournament, the winger said: “Of course, I would love to have played more. But of course, it’s not the time to talk about out. I try to do my talking on the pitch. It’s done now. Move one.”
While England manager Thomas Tuchel explained the decision to not play Saka in the semi-final by saying he trusted his gut.
“He did everything right. I had just a feeling in the semi-final for Morgan Rogers that he would be involved in something special. That was it. The game is in itself was so in demand that we were forced into changes because of cramps and flow of the game,” he said.
“Bukayo showed he was a key player, that was never a doubt. I was not even aware he had a hat-trick. I lost the overview of the goalscorers.”
Saka’s Arsenal teammate Declan Rice opened the scoring with an excellent strike from outside the box to score England’s second fastest ever World Cup goal, in just two minutes and 14 seconds.
Rice, whose campaign has been plagued by illness and fitness problems, then provided an assist 15 minutes later when Ezri Konsa, who was left out of the starting line-up against Argentina, headed home his corner.
Understandably, it was a case of too little too late from England as Three Lions fans in Miami made their feelings clear before kick off by booing Tuchel when he was shown on the big screens after days of backlash for his defensive tactics against the Argentines.
Tuchel, however, praised his players for achieving something special – England had never won a third place playoff game before.
“It was like four matches – what happened here. Crazy first half and a turbulent second half. You could see the difference what one day makes,” he said.
“We were so, so tired and drained from the last few weeks. Massive compliment and respect for the mentality we showed with all the adversity. Absolutely brilliant.
“I was afraid of the physical demand of the match due to the threat of France. They have far less of a schedule for them, it was less demanding. They had one day more after after the semi-final and had less travel distances than us.
“This sums it up for us. We played in the heat in extra-time, altitude and whatever. I was worried physically. You can see it in the second half, all the cramps and tiredness.
“But I was never worried about the tiredness. This team has created something special. They showed it again.”
It was not a pleasant farewell for the German’s French counterpart Dider Deschamps, whose 14 year tenure as national team boss ended at the final whistle.
France, who were beaten by Spain in their semi-final, had never been four goals behind in a World Cup game before today.
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