France and England will compete for third place in the 2026 World Cup this Saturday, July 18, at 3:00 p.m. Guatemala timein it Hard Rock Stadium in Miamiscene of the penultimate match of the tournament.
Both teams arrive after being one step away from the final. France fell to Spain and England was eliminated by Argentina, but they still have sporting and historical reasons to close the championship with a victory.
Rarely does a match generate as much contradiction as the one that defines third place in a World Cup.
Those who compete in it usually do so with the frustration of having lost the semifinal just a few days before. The final was out of reach and the prize is no longer the trophy, but a bronze medal that rarely figures among the great goals of football powers.
It’s not a new idea.
After the semifinal of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the then Netherlands coach, Louis van Gaal, launched a criticism that has accompanied every edition of the tournament since then.
“This match should never be played.”
Their argument was simple: forcing a semi-finalist to say goodbye with two consecutive defeats, just a few days after losing the opportunity to play in the final, is a burden that is difficult to justify from a sporting point of view.
Twelve years later, the protagonists of the 2026 World Cup expressed the same sentiment again.
England coach Thomas Tuchel was the first to do so after the defeat against Argentina.
“None of these players, none of the French players want to play in this match. They want to play in the final. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but it is what it is.”
Didier Deschamps shared that vision.
“I have a duty towards this match. It is not a friendly… The English team does not want to play. Neither do we. But there is a goal.”
The statements reflect a debate that resurfaces every four years: whether the match for third place still makes sense.
How France and England arrive
France heads into the match after losing 2-0 against Spain in the semifinals. They had previously eliminated Sweden, Paraguay and Morocco during the direct elimination phase.
England, for its part, fell 2-1 against Argentina after beating the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico and Norway.
The reduced recovery margin and accumulated wear could cause rotations in both teams. However, third place, individual records and the desire to close the World Cup with a victory maintain competitive interest.
An unrepeatable moment for France
Beyond the result, the match represents an unrepeatable moment for France.
It will be Didier Deschamps’ last match as national coach after more than a decade at the helm of Les Bleus.
World champion as a player in 1998 and as a coach in Russia 2018, he will close one of the most successful cycles in the history of French football.
In addition, it will reach a historical record.
With this match you will reach 27 matches coached in World Cupsthe highest figure for a coach in the history of the tournament.
Deschamps’ farewell turns a consolation match into the closing of an era for France.
Mbappé pursues the Golden Boot and history
The main individual attraction of the match will be in Kylian Mbappé’s boots.
The French forward is tied with Lionel Messi as the top scorer of the 2026 World Cup, both with eight goals. However, the Argentine provisionally leads the Golden Boot classification thanks to the tiebreaker criterion, as he has four assists compared to the Frenchman’s three.
As France will play one day before the final, Mbappé will have the first opportunity to break that equality in goals and transfer the pressure to Messi.
But the Golden Boot is not the only goal he pursues.
Mbappé accumulates 20 goals in World Cupsthe second best brand of all time. Only Messi surpasses him, with 21.
If he scores against England, he will reach nine goals in this edition, a figure that no footballer has reached in the same World Cup since Gerd Müller scored ten in Mexico 1970.
A double would equal him precisely with the German and would leave him only behind Sándor Kocsis (11, Switzerland 1954) and Just Fontaine (13, Sweden 1958).
England are looking for more than just a medal
The disappointment of not playing in the final dominates the English atmosphere, but the match also offers a competitive incentive.
It will be the last game of Thomas Tuchel’s first major tournament as England coach and an opportunity to close the championship with a victory before beginning the road to Euro 2028.
For footballers like Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka, the match represents the possibility of saying goodbye to the World Cup with a victory and a place on the podium.
The game that nobody wants, but ends up mattering
Every four years, the third-place match reopens the same discussion: whether it should really continue to exist.
Louis van Gaal’s words continue to find an echo among coaches and players who come to this commitment with the still fresh frustration of a lost semi-final.
However, the meeting retains arguments to be remembered.
For France it will be the farewell of Didier Deschamps and a new opportunity for Kylian Mbappé to pursue historical records.
For England it will be the closing of the first major tournament under the command of Thomas Tuchel and the possibility of leaving the World Cup with a victory.
The footballers will continue to say that this game is unnecessary. The history of the World Cups, on the other hand, shows that they almost always end up leaving something to remember.