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Bronze Final in Miami
France and England met in the third-place play-off at Miami Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, with the match described as the 103rd meeting of the two teams at this FIFA World Cup.
The live account from Flashscore put the score at 6-4 as France pushed forward, with Jude Bellingham pouncing to seal the win for England, while the same feed said the game began around 4 p.m. local time Saturday.
As the Golden Boot race stayed in focus, Flashscore said Kylian Mbappe scored again to make it 4-3 and that he currently holds the outright goals record with 21, one ahead of Lionel Messi.
The stakes for individuals were also framed around the Bronze Final itself, with Olympics.com saying it would decide who finishes third and fourth at the tournament and that Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, and Harry Kane were in the running for the Golden Boot.
In the lead-up, Sports Illustrated reported Thomas Tuchel’s decision to leave Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham out of the starting XI, quoting him: "It’s just common sense."
Tuchel’s choices and reactions
Flashscore’s live updates portrayed a chaotic match with multiple lead changes, including a moment at 00:11 CET when it said France had one back in the 48th minute through Kylian Mbappe, and another at 00:51 CET when it said Bukayo Saka converted a penalty in the 87th minute to make it 5-3.
Sports Illustrated tied the lineup decision to recovery and travel, quoting Tuchel: "We have so many kilometers in the legs."
The Guardian’s Football Daily framed the fixture as the game nobody wants to play, quoting Thomas Tuchel’s view that "None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match."
In the same Guardian extract, the piece quoted Ibrahima Konaté saying, "We must be grateful to him for that and we need to do everything we can to win this game … to get this chocolate medal, this bronze medal".
While the match unfolded, the New York Times preview said the English would secure their deepest World Cup run since the 1966 championship and the French would send off Didier Deschamps with dignity, even as it called the third-place match one that "means something nevertheless."
What’s at stake next
The match’s broadcast and viewing details were laid out by the New York Times, which said the venue was Hard Rock Stadium and the date was Saturday, July 18, with Fox and Telemundo carrying the U.S. TV coverage.
The New York Times also reported that Darren Fletcher was on play-by-play and Owen Hargreaves was next to him in the booth for analysis, while the pre-match studio show was in New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge Park with Rebecca Lowe as host.
In the match itself, the Palm Beach Post said Mbappé scored against England in the 48th minute of the World Cup third-place match on Saturday, July 18 at Hard Rock Stadium, cutting the English lead to 4-1 in the first minutes after halftime.
The same Palm Beach Post account said France made wholesale changes at halftime and that England built a 4-0 halftime lead thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa, with Rice opening the scoring in the third minute.
Looking beyond the pitch, Cadena 3 Argentina listed the appointed referee as Venezuelan Jesús Valenzuela and the VAR as Uruguayan Leodan González, while also noting the match time of 6:00 p.m. (Argentina time) at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
