England produced a stunning performance against France to end their 2026 Fifa World Cup on a high.
The Three Lions secured their best World Cup finish in 60 years with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat-trick to help them beat France 6-4.
England got off to a flying start and claimed the lead as early as the third minute, with Declan Rice intercepting the ball near the halfway line before driving forward and stroking a shot into the bottom corner of the net from just outside the penalty area.
Rice went from scorer to provider for England’s second goal, whipping in a corner kick from the left flank which was glanced home by defender Ezri Konsa for a 2-0 lead in the 18th minute.
Just under 20 minutes later, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka combined in a sweeping counter-attack which twice appeared to have been thwarted by the French defence, only for Saka to finally sweep home a left-footed shot for a 3-0 advantage.
France made a quartet of changes at the start of the second half, introducing Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Lucas Digne and Dayot Upamecano.
At the same time, England swapped out Rashford for Ollie Watkins.And Les Bleus quickly pulled a goal back, with Michael Olise playing a perfectly-weighted ball for Kylian Mbappe, who drilled home his ninth goal of this World Cup to make it 1-4 in the 48th minute.
In the 54th minute, France scored their second goal, with Barcola running onto a superb through ball from Mbappe before crashing the ball past goalkeeper Dean Henderson for 2-4.
Mbappe then scored a history-making goal in the 66th minute, playing a one-two with Olise before firing home to put France just one behind at 3-4.
It was Mbappe’s 10th goal of the tournament and his 22nd career goal inAn incredible comeback appeared to be on for France, but they were guilty of missing a couple of glaring chances before England were awarded a penalty in the 85th minute, as Malo Gusto tripped up Djed Spence.
Saka took the spot kick in the 87th minute and beat goalkeeper Mike Maignan from 12 yards to complete his hat-trick and seal a win for the Three Lions.
