by Craig Laycock
Original article:
France 4 - 6 England
Mbappé (48', 66'), Barcola (54'), Dembélé (90'+6) | Rice (3'), Konsa (18'), Saka (37', 45'+1, 87' pen), Bellingham (90'+8)
France and England saved their most entertaining performances until last in an incredible game of attack vs attack, with the Three Lions coming out on top of a ten-goal thriller that will live long in the memory.
The game became the highest-scoring third-placed playoff match of all time, and the fifth highest-scoring game of any World Cup.
The ingredients for this one were set. England, smarting from a painful late defeat to Argentina after botched defensive tactics were still looking to set up their best World Cup finish since 1966.
France, with Didier Deschamps bidding farewell at the end of the game, wanted to deliver their legendary manager a great sendoff while also boosting Kylian Mbappe’s Golden Boot chances. In the end, it was almost a game of two halves. England came out of the traps in blistering fashion, while France looked in disarray.
Declan Rice opened the scoring in the third minute after a fantastic interception just inside the French half, a jink inside and a superb finish from 25 yards. Before the 20 minute mark, we saw another of England’s powerful strengths come to the fore in set pieces, with Ezri Konsa smartly directing a header goalwards from a Declan Rice corner.
Saka made it three after an incredible breakaway in partnership with Marcus Rashford, where both took a shot before finally getting it past Maignan at the third time of asking. But he wasn’t done, with Eze feeding a perfect through ball to Saka in the 45th minute, which Saka powerfully finished into the bottom-right corner.
4-0, and into half-time, with England fans pinching themselves. Had France been terrible, or had England just been great? A little of both.
Whatever Deschamps said to his troops at half time certainly seemed to put a rocket up their backsides, and we saw a whole other France in the second half. In the 48th minute, Mbappe pulled one back with a deft first-time finish. They couldn’t, could they?
Minutes later Barcola bagged a second goal for France, before Mbappe struck again to make it 4-3, with England now the ones scrambling for control of the game. That was Mbappe’s 10th of the tournament, moving him beyond Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
France continued to send bodies forward and their onslaught on the England goal almost paid off on several occasions. But England seemed to have learned their lesson from the Argentina game and refused to sit deep, keeping an outball ready on the counter.
Djed Spence had a superb game covering an incredible amount of ground on the left flank, and when he was brought down in the box in the 87th minute, Saka stepped up to take the penalty that made it 5.
Although Dembele pulled one back to make it 5-4, England refused to surrender their lead and the excellent Jude Bellingham, who had come on as a sub, charged into the box, jinked past the French defence and slotted home to make it 6-4 and game over.
With 38 shots in total, and with Saka being the first Englishman to score a World Cup knockout stage hattrick since 1966, this was one for the record books.
Questions will be asked about why Saka didn’t play a role against Argentina, but that will be just another thing for Thomas Tuchel to pick through in the aftermath of a World Cup that was ostensibly a success for England, but still feels like a failure of what could have been.
8 min read
France 4 - 6 England
Mbappé (48', 66'), Barcola (54'), Dembélé (90'+6) | Rice (3'), Konsa (18'), Saka (37', 45'+1, 87' pen), Bellingham (90'+8)
France and England saved their most entertaining performances until last in an incredible game of attack vs attack, with the Three Lions coming out on top of a ten-goal thriller that will live long in the memory.
The game became the highest-scoring third-placed playoff match of all time, and the fifth highest-scoring game of any World Cup.
The ingredients for this one were set. England, smarting from a painful late defeat to Argentina after botched defensive tactics were still looking to set up their best World Cup finish since 1966.
France, with Didier Deschamps bidding farewell at the end of the game, wanted to deliver their legendary manager a great sendoff while also boosting Kylian Mbappe’s Golden Boot chances. In the end, it was almost a game of two halves. England came out of the traps in blistering fashion, while France looked in disarray.
Declan Rice opened the scoring in the third minute after a fantastic interception just inside the French half, a jink inside and a superb finish from 25 yards. Before the 20 minute mark, we saw another of England’s powerful strengths come to the fore in set pieces, with Ezri Konsa smartly directing a header goalwards from a Declan Rice corner.
Saka made it three after an incredible breakaway in partnership with Marcus Rashford, where both took a shot before finally getting it past Maignan at the third time of asking. But he wasn’t done, with Eze feeding a perfect through ball to Saka in the 45th minute, which Saka powerfully finished into the bottom-right corner.
4-0, and into half-time, with England fans pinching themselves. Had France been terrible, or had England just been great? A little of both.
Whatever Deschamps said to his troops at half time certainly seemed to put a rocket up their backsides, and we saw a whole other France in the second half. In the 48th minute, Mbappe pulled one back with a deft first-time finish. They couldn’t, could they?
Minutes later Barcola bagged a second goal for France, before Mbappe struck again to make it 4-3, with England now the ones scrambling for control of the game. That was Mbappe’s 10th of the tournament, moving him beyond Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
France continued to send bodies forward and their onslaught on the England goal almost paid off on several occasions. But England seemed to have learned their lesson from the Argentina game and refused to sit deep, keeping an outball ready on the counter.
Djed Spence had a superb game covering an incredible amount of ground on the left flank, and when he was brought down in the box in the 87th minute, Saka stepped up to take the penalty that made it 5.
Although Dembele pulled one back to make it 5-4, England refused to surrender their lead and the excellent Jude Bellingham, who had come on as a sub, charged into the box, jinked past the French defence and slotted home to make it 6-4 and game over.
With 38 shots in total, and with Saka being the first Englishman to score a World Cup knockout stage hattrick since 1966, this was one for the record books.
Questions will be asked about why Saka didn’t play a role against Argentina, but that will be just another thing for Thomas Tuchel to pick through in the aftermath of a World Cup that was ostensibly a success for England, but still feels like a failure of what could have been.
Bronze Medal Match: England win 10-goal thriller
Where do we even begin?
Original article:
France 4 - 6 England
Mbappé (48', 66'), Barcola (54'), Dembélé (90'+6) | Rice (3'), Konsa (18'), Saka (37', 45'+1, 87' pen), Bellingham (90'+8)
France and England saved their most entertaining performances until last in an incredible game of attack vs attack, with the Three Lions coming out on top of a ten-goal thriller that will live long in the memory.
The game became the highest-scoring third-placed playoff match of all time, and the fifth highest-scoring game of any World Cup.
The ingredients for this one were set. England, smarting from a painful late defeat to Argentina after botched defensive tactics were still looking to set up their best World Cup finish since 1966.
France, with Didier Deschamps bidding farewell at the end of the game, wanted to deliver their legendary manager a great sendoff while also boosting Kylian Mbappe’s Golden Boot chances. In the end, it was almost a game of two halves. England came out of the traps in blistering fashion, while France looked in disarray.
Declan Rice opened the scoring in the third minute after a fantastic interception just inside the French half, a jink inside and a superb finish from 25 yards. Before the 20 minute mark, we saw another of England’s powerful strengths come to the fore in set pieces, with Ezri Konsa smartly directing a header goalwards from a Declan Rice corner.
Saka made it three after an incredible breakaway in partnership with Marcus Rashford, where both took a shot before finally getting it past Maignan at the third time of asking. But he wasn’t done, with Eze feeding a perfect through ball to Saka in the 45th minute, which Saka powerfully finished into the bottom-right corner.
4-0, and into half-time, with England fans pinching themselves. Had France been terrible, or had England just been great? A little of both.
Whatever Deschamps said to his troops at half time certainly seemed to put a rocket up their backsides, and we saw a whole other France in the second half. In the 48th minute, Mbappe pulled one back with a deft first-time finish. They couldn’t, could they?
Minutes later Barcola bagged a second goal for France, before Mbappe struck again to make it 4-3, with England now the ones scrambling for control of the game. That was Mbappe’s 10th of the tournament, moving him beyond Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
France continued to send bodies forward and their onslaught on the England goal almost paid off on several occasions. But England seemed to have learned their lesson from the Argentina game and refused to sit deep, keeping an outball ready on the counter.
Djed Spence had a superb game covering an incredible amount of ground on the left flank, and when he was brought down in the box in the 87th minute, Saka stepped up to take the penalty that made it 5.
Although Dembele pulled one back to make it 5-4, England refused to surrender their lead and the excellent Jude Bellingham, who had come on as a sub, charged into the box, jinked past the French defence and slotted home to make it 6-4 and game over.
With 38 shots in total, and with Saka being the first Englishman to score a World Cup knockout stage hattrick since 1966, this was one for the record books.
Questions will be asked about why Saka didn’t play a role against Argentina, but that will be just another thing for Thomas Tuchel to pick through in the aftermath of a World Cup that was ostensibly a success for England, but still feels like a failure of what could have been.
8 min read
Bronze Medal Match: England win 10-goal thriller
Where do we even begin?
France 4 - 6 England
Mbappé (48', 66'), Barcola (54'), Dembélé (90'+6) | Rice (3'), Konsa (18'), Saka (37', 45'+1, 87' pen), Bellingham (90'+8)
France and England saved their most entertaining performances until last in an incredible game of attack vs attack, with the Three Lions coming out on top of a ten-goal thriller that will live long in the memory.
The game became the highest-scoring third-placed playoff match of all time, and the fifth highest-scoring game of any World Cup.
The ingredients for this one were set. England, smarting from a painful late defeat to Argentina after botched defensive tactics were still looking to set up their best World Cup finish since 1966.
France, with Didier Deschamps bidding farewell at the end of the game, wanted to deliver their legendary manager a great sendoff while also boosting Kylian Mbappe’s Golden Boot chances. In the end, it was almost a game of two halves. England came out of the traps in blistering fashion, while France looked in disarray.
Declan Rice opened the scoring in the third minute after a fantastic interception just inside the French half, a jink inside and a superb finish from 25 yards. Before the 20 minute mark, we saw another of England’s powerful strengths come to the fore in set pieces, with Ezri Konsa smartly directing a header goalwards from a Declan Rice corner.
Saka made it three after an incredible breakaway in partnership with Marcus Rashford, where both took a shot before finally getting it past Maignan at the third time of asking. But he wasn’t done, with Eze feeding a perfect through ball to Saka in the 45th minute, which Saka powerfully finished into the bottom-right corner.
4-0, and into half-time, with England fans pinching themselves. Had France been terrible, or had England just been great? A little of both.
Whatever Deschamps said to his troops at half time certainly seemed to put a rocket up their backsides, and we saw a whole other France in the second half. In the 48th minute, Mbappe pulled one back with a deft first-time finish. They couldn’t, could they?
Minutes later Barcola bagged a second goal for France, before Mbappe struck again to make it 4-3, with England now the ones scrambling for control of the game. That was Mbappe’s 10th of the tournament, moving him beyond Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
France continued to send bodies forward and their onslaught on the England goal almost paid off on several occasions. But England seemed to have learned their lesson from the Argentina game and refused to sit deep, keeping an outball ready on the counter.
Djed Spence had a superb game covering an incredible amount of ground on the left flank, and when he was brought down in the box in the 87th minute, Saka stepped up to take the penalty that made it 5.
Although Dembele pulled one back to make it 5-4, England refused to surrender their lead and the excellent Jude Bellingham, who had come on as a sub, charged into the box, jinked past the French defence and slotted home to make it 6-4 and game over.
With 38 shots in total, and with Saka being the first Englishman to score a World Cup knockout stage hattrick since 1966, this was one for the record books.
Questions will be asked about why Saka didn’t play a role against Argentina, but that will be just another thing for Thomas Tuchel to pick through in the aftermath of a World Cup that was ostensibly a success for England, but still feels like a failure of what could have been.
8 min read