Today, at the Miami Stadium, it was an absolute 10-goal thriller. England defeated France 6-4 to win the bronze medal in the FIFA World Cup 2026™. The last match of the tournament remains. Here is everything that happened today, and everything you need to know before the biggest night of the year.
Watch the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Final live on ZEE 5 — Spain vs Argentina, July 20, 12:30 AM IST. ZEE 5 FIFA Subscription Quarterly Plan at ₹799 or the Annual Plan at ₹1,699 and be there for history.
England 6–4 France — The Match Nobody Will Forget
The third-place match was supposed to be the quiet one. The formality. The match you watch half-distracted before the real event. England and France had other ideas.
Ten goals. Zero bookings. Two distinct halves that bore almost no resemblance to each other. England took the first forty-five minutes completely apart — Rice in the second minute with an audacious long-range strike, Konsa with a thumping header from a Rice cross, Saka twice — to lead 4–0 at the break. It was dominant, ruthless, and utterly convincing.
France’s second half was something else entirely. Mbappé pulled one back in the 48th minute. Barcola made it 4–2. And then, in the 66th minute, Mbappé struck again — his second of the night, his 22nd career World Cup goal — and that goal broke the all-time FIFA World Cup scoring record, moving him past Lionel Messi. The stadium recognised it. The broadcast recognised it. History does not wait for convenient moments.
But England held on. Saka converted a penalty in the 87th minute — completing his hat-trick — to make it 5–3. Dembélé pulled one back in the chaos of stoppage time to make it 5–4 and give Miami Stadium one final moment of anxiety. Then Bellingham, in the 98th minute, drove through the French defence and slotted past Maignan. 6–4.
The Three Records
The match produced three records that deserve to be spoken about separately from the scoreline. Mbappé’s 22nd World Cup goal makes him the all-time leading scorer in the competition’s history, ahead of Messi, Ronaldo, and Pelé. At 27, he is not finished.
Michael Olise completed the tournament with seven assists for France — the most by any player in a single FIFA World Cup, breaking a record held by Pelé since 1970. Fifty-six years. Gone.
And Bellingham’s 98th-minute goal was his seventh of the tournament — the most goals ever scored by an England player in a single World Cup, surpassing the six shared by Gary Lineker (1986) and Harry Kane, who had reached six both in 2018 and again in 2026. Bellingham went one further.
Three records. One match. The one nobody expected to matter.
Deschamps — Au Revoir
Didier Deschamps stepped down from his role as France manager after 14 years of service. He leaves with a 2018 World Cup winners’ medal, a second-place finish in Qatar, and a third-place finish in the United States. He also leaves with the knowledge that the France squad he built — Mbappéa, Olise, Dembélé, Maignan, Hernández, a generation of remarkable players — is in capable hands for whoever comes next. A 6–4 defeat on his final night is not the farewell anyone planned. The second half, though — with Mbappé making history, France scoring four against one of the strongest squads in the tournament — had the DNA of everything Deschamps built. That is a better send-off than the scoreline suggests.
The Only Match That Matters
Spain vs Argentina. New Jersey Stadium. 12:30 AM IST, July 20.
Spain come in with six clean sheets from seven matches. Rodri, Yamal, Simón, Oyarzabal — a team that has been the most complete side of the tournament. Argentina come in as the defending champions, with Messi heading into what is almost certainly the last match of his international career, looking for his second World Cup. Mac Allister hit the post twice against England before Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez scored the goals and won the match. Emiliano Martínez has immense penalty shootout experience in his back pocket if it comes to that.
The third-place match gave us ten goals and three records. The Final will give us something different — tighter, more tactical, slower to open up. But it will give us Messi. It will give us Yamal. And at some point, it will give us a moment that defines this tournament forever.
Spain vs Argentina. Watch the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Final live on ZEE 5, July 20, 12:30 AM IST. Don’t miss it.
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