Saka Hat-Trick Helps England Beat France 6-4 to Finish Third at 2026 World Cup

England finished third at the 2026 World Cup after surviving a wild second-half fightback from France to win 6-4 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Saturday, in the highest-scoring third-place match in World Cup history.

It's England's best finish at a men's World Cup since they won the whole thing in 1966, and it came just three days after a gutting semi-final loss to Argentina. Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick, becoming only the second England player ever to do so in a World Cup knockout game after Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966, while Jude Bellingham's late strike wrapped up both the win and his own personal tournament, finishing as England's top scorer at a single World Cup with seven goals.

For France, the day belonged to Kylian Mbappé despite the defeat. He scored twice and set up another, and those two goals took him to 21 World Cup goals in total, moving him past Lionel Messi as the tournament's all-time top scorer. It was also his 10th goal of this World Cup alone, making him the tournament's top scorer too, and putting him in pole position for the Golden Boot.

England were untouchable in the first half. Declan Rice opened the scoring inside three minutes after nicking the ball off France and firing home from the edge of the box, then teed up Ezri Konsa for a second from a corner. Saka added two more either side of half-time, the second coming in stoppage time, to send England in 4-0 up. It was the first time France had trailed by four goals at the break in any match since 1930.

Whatever manager Didier Deschamps said to his players at half-time worked, because France came out transformed. Mbappé pulled one back just after the restart, Bradley Barcola made it 4-2 soon after, and then Mbappé struck again to make it 4-3 and complete his piece of history. Suddenly a game that looked over was very much alive, and Michael Olise even had a great chance to level things up but fired wide.

England settled things from the penalty spot in the 87th minute after Djed Spence was fouled by Malo Gusto, with Saka slotting home his third to make it 5-3. Ousmane Dembélé pulled another back for France deep into stoppage time to make it a nervy 5-4, but Bellingham had the final say, driving through France's defence to score in the 98th minute and seal the win at 6-4.

It was Deschamps' last match in charge of France after 14 years at the helm, and it ended in defeat, France's first competitive loss to England since 1982, but not without a fight.

The stats back up just how open the game was. Both teams had 18 shots each, though England edged it with 10 shots on target to France's 9. 

England had a bit more of the ball, 55% possession to France's 45%, and completed around 60 more passes, while both sides passed at a sharp 92% accuracy. France picked up more fouls, 13 to England's 7, as they tried to slow England down, though remarkably there wasn't a single yellow card shown all game despite the ten goals scored.

Individually, Mbappé was outstanding even in defeat, involved in a huge share of France's attacking play with sharp movement and clean passing throughout. 

For England, Saka's hat-trick raised fresh questions about why he didn't feature more heavily in the semi-final loss to Argentina days earlier, while Rice's early influence and Bellingham's tournament-topping goal tally gave England reason to feel good about the future even after missing out on the final.

Most Goals in a World Cup Game

Twelve Goals

• Austria 7-5 Switzerland - 1954

Elven Goals

• Brazil 6-5 Poland - 1938
• Hungary 8-3 West Germany - 1954
• Hungary 10-1 El Salvador - 1982

Ten Goals

• France 7-3 Paraguay - 1958
• France 4-6 England - 2026