England beat France to claim World Cup bronze in Miami

Bukayo Saka’s hat-trick drove England past France 6-4 in Miami and secured bronze at the World Cup, in a consolation match that still carried Golden Boot implications. The result gave England a third-place finish after both sides had fallen in the semifinals, and left France to end Didier Deschamps’s long spell in charge with defeat.

Deschamps said before kickoff that neither country wanted to play for third place, but he insisted France had to honor the shirt and finish with a win. That resolve was tested in a furious, 10-goal contest in which Saka emerged as the decisive figure, while Dean Henderson, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze also shared their reactions after England completed the job.

The third-place game carried real weight beyond pride. The winners were awarded bronze medals, and the fixture has been part of every FIFA World Cup for 72 years, a detail that underlined why the match remained on the schedule even as both teams arrived with disappointment from the semifinals. England had been trying to close a campaign that had taken them within one step of their first World Cup final since 1966.

France had its own selection questions before the game. ESPN said Kylian Mbappé was available for the bronze-medal match and that Deschamps planned changes to the lineup, with Mbappé also chasing the Golden Boot and a tournament scoring record. That context gave the match a sharper edge, even if the broader mood around it was one of reluctant duty rather than celebration.

After the final whistle, Bukayo Saka gave an honest reaction to the bronze medal in a BBC Sport interview, while the official match summaries emphasized his hat-trick and England’s 6-4 victory over France. For Deschamps, it was the closing chapter of a managerial era that ended not with another final, but with a bronze-medal game in Miami and a team left to reckon with what might have been.