France 4-6 England: the highest-scoring Third Place Match in history

The 2026 World Cup's Third Place Match ended France 4-6 England, and with those 10 combined goals it became the highest-scoring third-place match in World Cup history — breaking a record that had stood for 68 years: France 6-3 West Germany, at Sweden 1958.

The match didn't just break the record for its own category: it also entered the conversation for highest-scoring matches across any stage of any World Cup. With its 10 goals, it lands in sixth place all-time, tied with France 7-3 Paraguay (Sweden 1958). Only four matches rank ahead of it: Hungary 10-1 El Salvador and Hungary 8-3 West Germany (11 goals each), Brazil 6-5 Poland (also 11), and the highest-scoring World Cup match of all time, Austria 7-5 Switzerland, with 12 goals in the 1954 quarterfinals.

On England's side, the result also produced a curious stat: it's only the third time in history that England has scored 6 or more goals in a World Cup match — the previous two were against Panama (6-1, Russia 2018) and Iran (6-2, Qatar 2022).

The other big storyline of the night was individual: Kylian Mbappé scored twice (minutes 48 and 66), and with that passed Lionel Messi as the all-time leading World Cup scorer among active players — both in career total (22 goals to 21) and in this tournament alone (10 to 8). All of it while waiting to see what Messi might do later today in the Final.

The rest of the match's goals also shook up the tournament's scoring table. Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick (minutes 37, 45+1, and 87) that brought him to 3 goals in this World Cup. Jude Bellingham added his in the 90+8th minute to reach 7, tied for fourth on the table. And Ousmane Dembélé, with his goal in the 90+6th, reached 6, tied with Harry Kane for fifth. On France's side, Bradley Barcola rounded out the scoring with his goal in the 54th minute.

From start to finish, it was a match full of emotion — the kind of back-and-forth rarely seen in a third-place match, the round usually played without much at stake. Given the quality on display from both sides, it wouldn't have been out of place as the Final itself.