England beat France 6-4 in a wildly entertaining World Cup third-place match, with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat trick to drive the victory in Miami Gardens, Florida. What is often treated as a consolation game instead turned into a goal-filled showcase between two of the tournament’s biggest teams.
Saka was the standout for England, finding the net three times as the match swung into an open, high-scoring battle. England’s attack kept producing in a game that quickly became far more dramatic than many would expect from a third-place playoff.
France still had a major individual storyline through Kylian Mbappé, who scored twice in the second half. According to the match report, those goals pushed him past Lionel Messi’s career World Cup scoring total and moved him into the lead in the Golden Boot race.
The result gave England third place, but the game’s main takeaway was its sheer chaos and entertainment value. Played a day before Messi and Argentina were set to try to defend their World Cup title, England and France delivered a thriller that easily grabbed attention on its own.
