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Ten goal thriller: England beats France by a stunning 6-4 to win World Cup’s third place play-off

England beats France by a staggering 6 goals to 4, to take third place in the World Cup.

The 10-goal thriller in Miami is the highest-scoring World Cup game since 1982, when Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1, and the standout match of this year’s tournament.

England raced to a 4-0 lead at half-time, with Declan Rice opening the scoring in the third minute, completely overwhelming France. But France came out reinvigorated for the second half and would not be beaten.

With Kylian Mbappe leading the charge, France pulled back to 4-3, before England pushed further ahead to 5-3.

But France scored again for 5-4, and went looking to tie the game, only for England to complete the thrilling victory with a sixth goal, a glorious solo effort by Jude Bellingham, in stoppage time.

Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick for England — two in the first half and a second-half penalty.

Mbappe scored twice for France, in the process becoming the top scorer in World Cup history with 22 goals. Mbappe has scored his goals over three World Cups, and is now one ahead of Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

Messi’s Argentina plays Spain on Sunday in the World Cup final.

England had been at a low going into the game, having lost 2-1 to Argentina after leading 1-0 in Wednesday’s semi-final, with coach Thomas Tuchel heavily criticized for packing his team with defenders to try to retain the lead for the final half-hour of the game, only for a Messi-inspired Argentina to score twice in the game’s dying minutes.

Ahead of tonight’s game, it had been reported that neither side was too happy about having to play, with the contest for third place a marginal encounter following the two sides’ defeats in their respective semi-finals. France had lost 2-0 to Spain on Tuesday.

In the event, however, the lack of pressure led to a remarkably open game, with France’s ferocious but thwarted comeback and England’s insistent and delighted victory indicating that both teams had, in fact, been extremely determined to win.