Declan Rice notched a goal and an assist in less than 20 minutes to open the floodgates before teammate Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick in England’s first-ever third-place finish in a World Cup.
Despite the hot, humid playing conditions, England looked energized, enjoying most of the ball possession early on and connecting through balls behind a French defense that appeared lackluster to start, but picked up the intensity later on.
Both teams began with only four regular starters in the lineup.
England captain Harry Kane, midfielder Jude Bellingham, and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford began on the bench.
France’s starting lineup included star player Kylian Mbappé, but not forward Ousmane Dembele, who scored five goals in this tournament.
The Three Lions drew first blood in the third minute. Rice, a defensive midfielder, collected a ball after a French turnover in the midfield. He dribbled forward from the left side, angled toward the middle, and fired a right-footed shot into the lower right corner of the net.
England scored again 15 minutes later off Rice’s corner kick. Defender Ezri Konsa rose above his marker and headed the ball past French goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
In the 37th minute, England’s Dean Henderson saved a low, hard shot from Mbappé. A long ball was then played to forward Marcus Rashford. After his shot was stopped, he settled the rebound and dished the ball to forward Bukayo Saka, who made the finish for England’s third goal.
Saka scored again in the 46th minute after a through ball from Eberechi Eze. He took a touch with his left foot to set up a left-footed cannon past Maignan on the right side of the goal.
Mbappé scored in the third minute of the second half, converting a one-timer off a diagonal pass to the middle from Michael Olise. With that sequence, Mbappé took the lead in the Golden Boot race for most goals with nine.
France substitute Bradley Barcola provided France’s second goal just six minutes later. He was at full sprint when he received the ball on the left side and beat England’s offside trap. He took several more strides forward before launching the ball into the English net.
Mbappé and Olise connected again in the 65th minute with a series of one-touch give-and-goes into England’s goal area. Mbappé’s one-timer was also his 22nd goal in Word Cup play, beating the 21-goal record Messi set earlier in this tournament. With the pass, Olise tied the record for most assists in a World Cup, set by Brazil’s Pele in 1970.
Saka appeared to seal the victory for England in the 87th minute by converting a penalty kick, throttling the ball into the right corner with his left foot.
But Dembele got one back with less than two minutes left in second half stoppage time, beating defenders in England’s goal area with a finish at close range.
Less than 60 seconds later, substitute Bellingham made a dazzling display of dribbling, beating players to the left and to the right before scoring his seventh goal in this tournament—the most of any English player in history.
In the semifinals, France was upset by Spain, while Argentina came from behind to defeat England.
England won its only World Cup in 1966. This was its first third place finish in three attempts, having lost to Belgium in 2018 and Italy in 1990.
It was also Didier Deschamps’s last match as France’s coach, ending a 14-year run. He led Les Bleus to a World Cup title in 2018 and a second-place finish four years ago.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the team for which Bukayo Saka played. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
