Saka hat trick helps England beat France 6-4 for third place

Bukayo Saka’s hat trick powered England past France 6-4 in the World Cup third-place match at Miami Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, turning the bronze final into a 10-goal showcase that said as much about both squads’ depth as it did about their finishing.

England got goals from Saka, Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa and Jude Bellingham, while France answered through Kylian Mbappé, who scored twice and remained the tournament’s leading scorer. FIFA described the game as a “ten-goal thriller,” and the scoreline made it the highest-scoring match played at Miami Stadium during the 2026 tournament.

The result also underlined how aggressively both sides approached the final game of the tournament. England did not treat the match as a dead end after missing out on the title, and the contributions from Saka, Rice, Konsa and Bellingham pointed to a roster that could spread scoring across multiple lines. France, for its part, still found a way to keep pressure on England through Mbappé even as the match opened up, a reminder of how quickly elite attacking talent can turn a consolation fixture into a high-stakes shootout.

Mbappé’s brace carried another milestone. FIFA noted that the forward reached 100 matches for France in the same game that kept him atop the World Cup scoring race. The match also put a final stamp on Miami Stadium’s role in the tournament: FIFA said the venue hosted seven World Cup matches, drawing a combined 449,157 spectators across those games and filling 99.5 percent of available capacity.

Saka was named the Player of the Match and later said he was proud to be part of an “elite list” of scorers. That personal milestone fit the scale of the night, as England’s 6-4 win over France closed one of the tournament’s most open, high-scoring performances and left both programs with sharp evidence of their attacking ceiling and their defensive vulnerabilities heading into the next cycle.