France and England meet in World Cup bronze final in Miami

France and England met at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Saturday at 17:00 local time, 21:00 GMT, in FIFA’s Bronze Final, the World Cup’s third-place play-off. After semifinal defeats, the match carried less glamour than the final but still had real stakes: bronze medals for the winners and goals that counted toward the Golden Boot.

The third-place play-off has been part of the World Cup since 1934 and has been missing only three times, including the canceled tournaments in 1942 and 1946. That history has given the fixture a strange kind of permanence, even as many players and coaches treat it as the game no one wants but almost everyone must play. Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham all had Golden Boot implications hanging over the result, so the night was not only about consolation.

France and England also arrived in Miami with recent knockout history between them. England lost 2-1 to France in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals at Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar on December 10, 2022, when Aurélien Tchouaméni and Olivier Giroud scored for France. Harry Kane scored one penalty for England and missed another, a reminder that these meetings have often turned on the smallest margins.

That Qatar tournament ran from November 20 to December 18, and France’s run ended in the final at Lusail Iconic Stadium, where Argentina beat France on penalties. The Miami bronze final therefore sat between two different kinds of unfinished business: England trying to move past another painful exit against France, and France trying to leave the competition with a medal after falling short of the decisive match.

The third-place game has long been a tournament afterthought, but it still affects reputations, medals and the scoring race. In Miami, the result was a low-glamour fixture with high-value details, from the bronze medal on offer to the goals that could still shape the World Cup’s individual honours.