England Beat France 6-4 by Exploiting a Defense That Kept Switching Off
England had this third-place playoff won by halftime, and they won it doing the one thing France's back line couldn't answer: taking their chances the moment they were offered. Declan Rice curled one in inside three minutes, then set up Ezri Konsa's header soon after. Bukayo Saka added two more before the break, one a tap-in off a Marcus Rashford pass, the other a finish from the edge of the box. By the time France's players reached the tunnel at Miami Stadium, they were down 4-0 in a match that had nothing to do with a talent gap (ESPN).
That's the part of this scoreline that should sting more than the loss itself. France responded in the second half the way a squad with Kylian Mbappé in it should. He scored in the 48th minute, set up Bradley Barcola before the hour, then scored again in the 66th to move ahead of Lionel Messi as the World Cup's all-time leading scorer, both goals arriving off Michael Olise assists (ESPN). For a stretch, France looked like they might complete one of the great comebacks in tournament history.
They didn't get there because the same problem that opened the game closed it. A penalty conceded by Gusto let Saka complete his hat trick in the 87th minute. Ousmane Dembélé pulled one back in stoppage time, and then Jude Bellingham scored again almost immediately after, sealing a 6-4 final that stands as the highest-scoring World Cup match since 1982 (Yahoo Sports).
France didn't lose this bronze-medal match because they ran out of quality. They had two of the best attacking players in the tournament combining for four goals between them. They lost because for the second time in the same afternoon, they switched off at the moment it mattered, and against a team finishing with this much intent, that's always going to cost you the match.
