{"id":51491,"date":"2026-07-19T06:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T01:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=51491"},"modified":"2026-07-19T06:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T01:13:32","slug":"england-beat-france-6-4-to-secure-third-place-at-fifa-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/england-beat-france-6-4-to-secure-third-place-at-fifa-world-cup-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"England beat France 6-4 to secure third place at FIFA World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><strong>Kathmandu, July 19:<\/strong> England claimed third place at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after a thrilling 6-4 victory over France, inspired by a stunning hat-trick from winger Bukayo Saka, in the third-place playoff on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>At Miami Stadium, Saka starred with three goals, while Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa, and Jude Bellingham each found the net to complete England&#8217;s emphatic win. For France, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 scored twice, with Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 adding one goal apiece.<\/p>\n<p>England made a dream start when Rice opened the scoring in the third minute. The Three Lions doubled their advantage in the 18th minute, as Konsa headed home from Rice&#8217;s corner.<\/p>\n<p>Saka made it 3-0 in the 37th minute, finishing off a pass from Marcus Rashford, before adding his second goal in first-half stoppage time to give England a commanding 4-0 lead at the break.<\/p>\n<p>France responded immediately after the restart, with Mbapp\u00e9 pulling one back in the 48th minute from a pass by Michael Olise. Just six minutes later, Mbapp\u00e9 turned provider as Barcola reduced the deficit to 4-2.<\/p>\n<p>The comeback looked well and truly on when Mbapp\u00e9 scored his second goal of the match in the 66th minute, again assisted by Olise, making it 4-3. The brace also saw Mbapp\u00e9 become the leading scorer of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the all-time top scorer in FIFA World Cup history.<\/p>\n<p>However, England regained control late in the game. Saka completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 87th minute, restoring a two-goal cushion at 5-3.<\/p>\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 scored deep into stoppage time to make it 5-4, but Bellingham sealed England&#8217;s victory moments later with another goal in the 98th minute, ensuring a memorable 6-4 triumph.<\/p>\n<p>England&#8217;s victory secured third place at the FIFA World Cup 2026, while France finished fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Attention now turns to the tournament final, where defending champions Argentina will face 2010 FIFA World Cup winners Spain for the coveted title later today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu, July 19: England claimed third place at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after a thrilling 6-4 victory over France, inspired by a stunning hat-trick from winger Bukayo Saka, in the third-place playoff on Sunday. At Miami Stadium, Saka starred with three goals, while Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa, and Jude Bellingham each found the net [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-main-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51494,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491\/revisions\/51494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}