There is a certain sadness to the third-place playoff match at a FIFA World Cup.
For all their hopes and dreams coming into the world’s biggest football tournament, falling short of a spot in the final is heartbreaking. And then, to pick themselves up a few days later and compete for an unwanted consolation prize becomes even more difficult.
“None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match,” England’s manager Thomas Tuchel said ahead of the game.
And yet, when England took on 2018 champions France at the Miami Stadium in Florida, the match for third place turned out to be one of the most extraordinary and thrilling matches across the 23 editions of the World Cup.
There was a hat-trick. There was a one-sided first half followed by a breathtaking near-comeback in the second. There was a new world record for Kylian Mbappe, a fond farewell to legendary coach Didier Deschamps, and there were goals galore – 10 of them – as England clinched the bronze medal with a 6-4 win.
France, the reigning world No.1 team, were considered the team to beat going into the tournament. And with Kylian Mbappe scoring eight goals to get them to the semi-final, they looked destined to reach their third consecutive final at the World Cup. That’s where the wheels fell off against a disciplined Spanish team, as France lost 2-0.
England, meanwhile, led Argentina 1-0 after playing a brave and attacking brand of football, but let the opposition back into the match by, remarkably, switching into an ultra-defensive mode. They lost 2-1 in that match.
But in the early hours of Sunday (Indian Standard Time), England were on the front foot from the get-go.
England had made seven changes to the starting lineup (the same as France), and stand-in captain Declan Rice made the first impact, intercepting a pass in midfield, charging up the pitch and then placing a side-footed long-range shot into the French net.
With just two minutes and 14 seconds on the clock, England were up 1-0.
By the 18th minute, Rice floated in a corner that Ezri Konsa headed home to double the lead.
Bukayo Saka then combined with Marcus Rashford in a blistering counter-attack to score, and then collected a defence-splitting pass from Eberechi Eze to make it 4-0 going into the half-time break.
This was a stunning first-half performance from England and a horrible one for France – this was the first time they were trailing by three goals in the first half of a World Cup, and the first time they conceded four goals in a match in the history of the tournament.
While England attacked with flair and intent, France was lacklustre in defence and their fabled attacking unit failed to find any rhythm. It was a performance that did a major disservice to their coach, Deschamps, who was leading the team in his last game in charge.
Indeed, before the match, Mbappe posted an emotional message on social media, stating (in French) that “we should have given you a better ending, but we failed.”
Then France came back in the second half, showing the hunger that had been missing in the first.
Mbappe scored his ninth goal of this tournament within three minutes of the restart to put him in the lead (for the time being) in the race for the Golden Boot Award. Substitute Bradley Barcola pulled another one back in the 54th minute, and suddenly, France were back in the game
From the match being played end-to-end in the first half, England were now on the back foot. Then France struck again through Mbappe, who set a new World Cup record for most goals, taking his tally to 22, just one ahead of Lionel Messi.
But unlike in the match against Argentina, the English were still looking to make ways forward. In the 87th minute, they finally got some respite from the relentless French attacks with a penalty.
Saka made no mistake to become the fourth England player to score a World Cup hat-trick, making it 5-3 for England.
Just when England looked poised to earn their best finish at a World Cup since they won the title in 1966, France scored through Ousmane Dembele deep into stoppage time.
France trailed 4-5 at that stage, but had Michael Olise converted a host of chances that came to him, the team in blue should have been leading comfortably. Still, they surged forward looking for an equaliser.
Adding numbers to the attack, however, left them vulnerable at the back. It gave England a chance right at the end of the match, which Jude Bellingham seized with a confident and well executed goal in what was the last kick of the game.
That goal was Bellingham’s seventh of the tournament, making him England’s highest scorer at a single edition of a World Cup.
During the Wimbledon Championships in London earlier this month, there were bizarre instances in the stands where spectators were more cued in to streaming the football matches on their phones.
On Sunday morning at the Miami Stadium, the match finished with a tennis score.
The excitement now shifts to the final, as Spain takes on Messi’s Argentina. But once the dust settles and there is a moment to reflect on this long tournament, the England vs France match will remain one of the most exciting games ever played at the World Cup.
