England beat France 6-4 in 10-goal World Cup thriller
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- Bukayo Saka scored a hat trick, including a decisive 87th-minute penalty, to become only the fourth Englishman to achieve the feat in a men's World Cup match
- Jude Bellingham scored in stoppage time to become the first Englishman to tally seven goals in a single World Cup, sealing England's 6-4 victory over France
- Kylian Mbappé scored twice in the second half, surpassing Lionel Messi as men's all-time World Cup top scorer with 22 goals and moving two goals clear in the Golden Boot race
- Michael Olise recorded his seventh assist of the tournament, setting a new single-World Cup record, though he missed a key chance to equalize for France
- Thomas Tuchel acknowledged the pain of missing the final but praised England's resilience, calling their bronze-medal performance 'worthy of high worship' despite semifinal disappointment
- France and England combined for 10 goals, the most in any World Cup match since Hungary's 10-1 win over El Salvador in 1982, in a game defined by second-half chaos
Why it matters: England's third-place finish marks their best World Cup result in 58 years and validates a young squad's emergence, while Mbappé’s record-breaking goals and Olise’s assist milestone shift individual legacies despite France’s failure to medal, making this high-scoring finale a personal triumph amid national disappointment.
