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England beat France 6-4, Saka hat-trick in World Cup third-place game

sportsJul 19, 202614011,265

Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick as England beat France 6-4 in the World Cup third-place match, giving the Three Lions their best men's World Cup finish since winning the tournament in 1966. England raced into a 4-0 half-time lead through Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa and two Saka goals, the first time France trailed by four at half-time since April 1930. France dominated after the break with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice and Bradley Barcola also finding the net, and Mbappé moved past Lionel Messi to become the World Cup's all-time leading scorer on 22 goals. Saka completed his treble from the penalty spot in the 87th minute after Malo Gusto fouled Djed Spence, Ousmane Dembélé pulled one back in stoppage time, and Jude Bellingham sealed the win with a 98th-minute goal for his tournament-high seventh strike. The match was the highest-scoring World Cup third-place game on record and marked Didier Deschamps's final game in charge of France. Pundits Stephen Warnock and Danny Murphy praised the match as some of the best free-flowing football of the tournament.

Howard Goodall
@howardgoodall.bsky.social

In an angry, divided world, this is a great image from last night's France-England game 👏

England and France players embracing at the end of a 10-goal World Cup football game for 3rd place
502945d ago
Quoting this
AmeriKraut342

the black employee post meeting meet up is universal ☝🏿

Zee Thee Mischievous15

I love how WE understand this picture on a whole different level.

Chris Boyd12

(quietly, wiping a tear from one eye): oceans are now huggyfields

Roter Pixie 🔻9

Makes you wonder - would the people calling this beautiful, also call it beautiful if they were praying towards Mecca. Might want to look into the misogynistic, homophobe evangelical organization “ballers in god“ these players are a part of.

Knitting Cat9

The mutual respect shown between all of the players, support staff & coaches was reassuring to see, after the match. In this world, we need to see this & not endless hatred. The best match of the tournament.

Kari 🇨🇦🐧💛5

En tk, c'est pas de même que la Bataille des Plaines s'est terminée 😬

Ren Zelen4

Because we’re all Europeans (and we should all be in the EU). France just gave our outgoing U.K. Prime Minister the Legion d'honneur. At this time in particular, Europe needs to hold together to forge ahead.

Ian Cambrook3

The beautiful game #France 🇫🇷 v England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #WorldCup2026 ⚽️

AMR2

This corrupt World Cup got cleansed a little by the 3rd place match, which should've been the final in my opinion. So happy I got to watch all the players behave like normal footballers after the match. Laughing, hugging each other, exchanging jerseys... good for you guys.

Miriam Taylor Greenwood🇺🇦2

I don't do football, but the image here is powerful enough to share.

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