England beats France 6-4 in World Cup third-place playoff as Mbappé breaks scoring record

England defeated France 6-4 in the World Cup third-place playoff match in Miami on Saturday. Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick for England, while Kylian Mbappé became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history with his two goals in the match.
The match saw England race to a 4-0 lead by halftime. However, France mounted a comeback in the second half, scoring four goals, but it was not enough to overcome England's lead. The 10 goals scored in the match made it the highest-scoring World Cup game since Hungary's 10-1 victory over El Salvador in 1982.
England's victory secures their best finish in the World Cup since winning the title in 1966. "I hope that the players can be proud of that in some time," said England coach Thomas Tuchel. "We are fiercely competitive, so we almost don't allow ourselves to be proud of third place because 18 months ago we set the highest goal. We set the highest dream to chase, and we were very, very ambitious with our dream to make it to the final and win the World Cup. So it's very, very painful if you miss out."
Kylian Mbappé's two goals brought his total to 22 World Cup goals, surpassing Lionel Messi's record. Mbappé now leads the Golden Boot race with 10 goals in this tournament, two ahead of Messi, who will have one final opportunity to overtake Mbappé in Sunday's World Cup final against Spain.
England's goals were scored by Saka (3), Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa, and Jude Bellingham, who scored in stoppage time to seal the victory. France's goals came from Mbappé (2) and two other players.
The World Cup final between Argentina and Spain is set to take place on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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