It's (3rd Place) Coming Home!
- Philip Fox
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Credit Opta Analyst
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
On July 18th, France and England took a trip down to hot, hot, hot Miami, Florida, with more than 64,000 of their biggest supporters ready to take home any pride.
For these two teams, it had been quite the journey. France reached the semifinals through pure offensive dominance and a strong wall between the posts, allowing only two goals before the disappointing semifinal loss to Spain.
England got to their semifinal match through pure force of will. England survived all of their games by one point until their final demise to Argentina, who won by one point.
Both teams were understandably disappointed to be there, but fighting for third place was still a huge honor.
France started in a 4-2-3-1 formation under French manager Didier Deschamps in their final match of the 2026 World Cup with a very different starting lineup. Mike Maignan started in goal. The defensive four had Malo Gusto at right back, Ibrahima Konaté and Maxence Lacroix as the center-back duo, and Theo Hernández at left back. The French defensive midfielders were Warren Zaïre-Emery and Adrien Rabiot. In the attacking midfield, Michael Olise started on the right wing, Rayan Cherki in attacking midfield, and Désiré Doué on the left wing. In the striker position was French captain Kylian Mbappé.
Manager Thomas Tuchel led the Three Lions with a 4-1-4-1 formation and also a very different lineup than in prior matches. England started Dean Henderson in goal. Jarell Quansah started at right back, Ezri Konsa and Marc Guéhi started as the center-back duo, and Djed Spence rounded out the defense at left back. Declan Rice took the captain's armband and charge of the defensive midfield. Bukayo Saka started on the right wing, the duo of Eberechi Eze and Morgan Rogers started in the attacking midfield, and Marcus Rashford started on the left wing. Ivan Toney started as the lone striker.
Rob Cohen must have directed this game because it was Fast and Furious. France may have kicked off the game, but England started the story. Declan Rice took his role as captain seriously and intercepted an awful pass at around the halfway line, dribbled the ball to around 25 yards out, and placed the ball perfectly into the bottom-right corner to give England the quick 1-0 lead in the third minute.
Rice continued his captain's contributions by adding an assist from the corner in the 18th minute of play. Rice kicked a beautiful in-swinging ball into the box where Konsa was waiting. Konsa pounced and headed the ball into the bottom right corner.
England clearly learned from their semifinal loss that they shouldn't just sit and wait for the other team to attack; they should continue to control the ball and attack. In the 36th minute, England came on the attack again, with Rashford putting a shot on goal, but the goalie made a good save; Rashford was bright enough to tap the ball over to Saka, who was around 6 yards out for the simple tap-in. Saka tripled England's lead in the first third of the game.
Three was not good enough for the Three Lions in the first half, as Eze found Saka making a run to the edge of the box, and with a perfect pass, Saka took a simple touch and buried the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal to make the score at the half 4-0.
England finished the half with 55% possession, shooting 7-for-11 on goal. France took only five shots, with two on target.
Captain Mbappé was not finished with this game, though. John Singleton directed the second half because it was 2 Fast 2 Furious. Three minutes into the second half, France pulled one back with a pinpoint pass from Olise to Mbappé, who finished the fast break with a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner. England’s lead was now 4-1.
Mbappé continued to lead France on their comeback tour with a perfectly weighted pass to Barcola, who finished the ball near the post with his right foot, halving England's lead to just 4-2.
Mbappé continued to push France as hard as he could. Olise linked up with the French captain with another beautifully placed ball, which Mbappé controlled quickly and blasted past the Crystal Palace keeper. Mbappé also took the crown as the top player for most goals in World Cup history. By the tail end of the two halves, France had scored three unanswered goals and had cut England's lead to 4-3 in the 66th minute.
It was all France in the second half until the 85th minute, when French defender Gusto had too much gusto and took out Spence in the box. Saka, who was sitting on a brace already, stepped up and fired in his third of the night, taking home the match ball for his hat trick and restoring a two-goal lead and some momentum. England now led 5-3.
At the end of the 90 minutes, it was determined that a minimum of 7 extra minutes would be played. Those 7 minutes felt like an entirely new match. In the 90+6th minute, Upamecano intercepted a poorly delivered pass and showed England how to properly pass by sending one to Dembélé, who finished the fast break with a left-footed shot past the English keeper to make the score 5-4 in England's favor.
The English were on their heels at the moment, but as the old song goes, “take a sad song and make it better.” Then the young Englishman Jude Bellingham took control of the ball and dribbled through the box, past three French defenders and the keeper, to finish the game with England taking home third place with a final score of 6-4.
England finished the game with 54% possession. Both teams took 19 shots, but England had 11 on target compared to France’s 9.
It may not have seemed like a game that would matter much at the beginning, with the majority of both sides replaced by different starters and “only” fighting for third place, but it turned out to be one of the most thrilling games in World Cup history. England would be proud not to have backed down when the momentum shifted away from them, and France would be proud to have fought hard to come back and make it a game for the ages.
Mbappé took the lead for the Golden Boot with 10 goals in the tournament and has now won the individual prize in two consecutive tournaments.
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