Jude Bellingham had the last kick in England’s 2026 FIFA World Cup to end a very pulsating third place match against France at 6 – 4 England.
The match started in high tempo, with England’s stand-in captain, Declan Rice, finding the net in the third minute for an England early lead.
Apparently drawing from their Argentina experience in the semi-final, England did not sit back to defend the one goal lead (a tactic that that proved disastrous for them as Argentina had to come from a goal down to beat them 2 -1 in regulation time). They rather, pushed and pressed France and it was no surprise they doubled their lead through a corner from Rice that was converted by Ezri Konsa before 20 minutes into the first half.
England ended the first half with 4 – 0 up, as Marcus Rashford and Eberechi Eze fed Bukayo Saka for England’s 3rd and 4th goals respectively, leaving France goal keeper Mike Miagnan thoroughly flustered. England goal keeper, Dean Henderson was virtually on holiday as France did not really test him.
But France came into the second half with new spirit, slotting in two quick goals by Kylian Mbappe (48th minute) and Bradley Barcola (54th minute) to push the game back into a contest at 2 – 4. Mbappe added France’s third (and his 10th goal in this tournament, two more than Lionel Messi who has a game in hand) in the 66th minute, making the match to hang delicately at 3 – 4 in favour of England.
The Les Blues piled pressure on England, but were caught off guard in a counter attack that led to the Malo Gusto hacking down of Djed Spence in the penalty box in the 85th minute. Saka who was on a hat trick, hammered home a well taken left-footed penalty to give England a 3 – 5 lead.
France scored again in injury time, but England had the final say with a solo effort from Jude Bellingham who dusted three France defenders to score with the last kick of the game.
England clinched bronze medal in this tournament, the first in their FIFA World Cup history. This takes them a step closer to their dream of lifting the FIFA World Cup for the second time, after their triumph on home soil in 1966 under Alph Ramsey.
Coach Didier Deschamps could not end his glorious stay as the France national coach on a winning note as he leave the role at the end of this tournament.
This year’s final comes up later today between defending champions Argentina and Spain.