18/07/2026
🦆🏴 **BRONZE MEDAL MATCH: FRANCE 4-6 ENGLAND 🇫🇷🦆
Yes.
You read that correctly.
**France 4. England 6.**
More Wimbledon than World Cup.
England produced the performance everyone had been waiting for.
The only problem?
It arrived about three days too late.
The Three Lions exploded out of the blocks. Three minutes in, Declan Rice charged forward like a man who'd forgotten he was supposed to be a holding midfielder and buried the opener.
Not long afterwards, Rice turned provider. A delicious pinpoint corner found Ezri Konsa, who powered home England's second.
France were shell-shocked.
England weren't finished.
Marcus Rashford sprinkled a little magic down the flank before Bukayo Saka made it three, and before France had worked out what had hit them, Saka had his second.
**4-0 at half-time.**
Somewhere in the England dressing room, the players must have been asking the same question as the fans.
*"Where was this against Argentina?"*
Didier Deschamps clearly launched every available object around the French dressing room during the interval because **sacré bleu**, an entirely different France emerged for the second half.
Kylian Mbappé made it 4-1.
Bradley Barcola made it 4-2.
Mbappé struck again for 4-3.
Suddenly England were wobbling, and had Michael Olise packed his shooting boots instead of his slippers, France might well have completed one of the greatest comebacks in football history.
England desperately needed something.
They got it when Djed Spence, outstanding all tournament alongside Jude Bellingham, was bundled over by Malo Gusto.
Penalty.
Bukayo Saka stepped up.
No stuttering run-up.
No nonsense.
Just straight into the net.
5-3.
France refused to surrender.
Ousmane Dembélé made it 5-4 in the 96th minute and England fans everywhere began checking whether heart medication was available on the NHS.
Then...
Jude Bellingham.
What happened next barely belonged in the same sport.
He seemed to appear from nowhere, surged half the length of the pitch, skipped past three defenders, fired through the legs of another on the goal line and then casually walked away as though he'd just returned a library book.
**Are you kidding, Jude?**
It was one of those goals that deserved its own standing ovation.
6-4.
Game over.
England leave with bronze medals, their best World Cup finish since 1966, and enough "what ifs" to fill an entire pub.
Because if this England had turned up against Argentina...
Who knows?
🏴 **Gordon Bennett Award:** England, for remembering how to attack... eventually.
⚽ **Box-to-Box Award:** Declan Rice, scorer, creator and absolute menace.
🎯 **No Stutter Required Award:** Bukayo Saka, who buried the penalty with complete authority.
🌟 **Tournament Star Award:** Djed Spence, magnificent again before winning the decisive penalty.
👑 **What On Earth Was That? Award:** Jude Bellingham, whose outrageous solo goal may just be the goal of the tournament.
🏆 **Duck Off Rating:** **10/10.** Ten goals, two completely different halves, panic, brilliance and one unforgettable Jude Bellingham masterpiece.
England take the bronze.
France are left empty-handed.
And every England fan leaves with exactly the same thought...
**If only we'd played like that in the semi-final.**
