England claimed third place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a dramatic 6-4 victory over France in one of the highest-scoring matches in tournament history.Thomas Tuchel's heavily rotated side produced an outstanding first-half performance, taking a commanding 4-0 lead before the break.

Declan Rice opened the scoring after just three minutes with England's second-fastest goal in World Cup history, while Ezri Konsa added a second from a corner.Bukayo Saka then scored twice before half-time to put England in complete control.

France responded strongly after the interval, with Kylian Mbappé scoring early in the second half before Bradley Barcola and another Mbappé goal reduced the margin to just one.

Mbappé's second strike made him the outright leading goalscorer in World Cup history with 22 goals and moved him to the top of the tournament's Golden Boot standings.England steadied themselves late in the match when Saka converted a penalty to complete his hat-trick after Djed Spence was fouled.

France scored again through Ousmane Dembélé in stoppage time to make it 5-4, but Jude Bellingham immediately restored England's two-goal advantage to seal a memorable 6-4 result.

The victory gives England their best World Cup finish since winning the tournament in 1966 and marks their first success in a third-place play-off after previous defeats in 1990 and 2018.For France, the defeat ended Didier Deschamps' 14-year tenure as coach.

Despite the loss, Mbappé reached a significant personal milestone, although he said he would have preferred to be playing in the World Cup final rather than setting scoring records.