MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 France and England agree on this: Neither team wanted to be playing on Saturday.<\/p>\n
France was a favorite to win the World Cup. England was close to ending a decades-long wait for its first World Cup title since 1966.<\/p>\n
Both fell one match short of their ultimate goals after losses in the semifinals. And instead of playing in Sunday\u2019s final \u2014 that game will be between Argentina and Spain \u2014 England and France will face each other in a consolation match for third place.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us wanted to play in this game for third place,\u201d France defender Ibrahima Konate said Friday. \u201cBut we don\u2019t have a choice to play. France and England have a big story together. And yeah, we are looking forward for the game tomorrow, and let\u2019s see what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the match will provide little more than moral victories, it may give Thomas Tuchel a chance to regain favor after the England coach faced widespread criticism about his tactical choices in the Three Lions\u2019 semifinal loss to Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to be, tomorrow, in this game,\u201d Tuchel said Friday evening. \u201cAll of these four teams wanted to be in New York (at the final). But it is an official World Cup game. It\u2019s a chance to have the best result in 60 years for England. Mentality is not something that you switch on and switch off as you like it. It is a moment to show that we are actually made of what we showed through the whole tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 also still has a chance to win the Golden Boot, awarded to the tournament\u2019s leading scorer.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 has eight goals, tied with Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi for the tournament lead. Messi has an edge in the tiebreaker with four assists to Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s three. England\u2019s Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are also in the mix with six goals each.<\/p>\n
France coach Didier Deschamps said Mbapp\u00e9 is available for Saturday\u2019s match \u2014 the star participated in France\u2019s training session Friday in Fort Lauderdale \u2014 but added he will make changes to his regular lineup. Tuchel said there will also be changes to England\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a match for the third place playoff, and there\u2019s a duty,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cWe have duties. I have duties, my staff has duties and so do the players. We have a responsibility to wear this jersey for all the French people who are cheering for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will also be the final game for Deschamps as France\u2019s coach after 14 years leading the squad. Konate said the French players want to \u201cpay back our head coach\u201d with one last win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe carried many French players,\u201d Konate said. \u201cWe had some disappointing moments, but he brought a lot of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
France won the World Cup under Deschamps in 2018, lost a gut-wrenching final to Argentina on penalties in 2022, and fell short tactically on Tuesday, when the offensive firepower of Mbapp\u00e9, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise was neutralized by the stout Spanish defense.<\/p>\n
Deschamps won one major trophy \u2014 albeit the biggest of all \u2014 having lost the European Championship final on home soil in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it will be the last match and I also know that the French national team will be missed,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cI had the privilege for 15 years to be up here with this jersey, to experience magnificent moments, more difficult moments. The French national team is the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me in my professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n
For England, which reached the World Cup semis for the first time since 2018, there is still work to do in closing the gap with France, Argentina and Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think out of the four (semifinal) teams, the other three teams almost expect to be world champions,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cWe were hoping. We were dreaming. We were pushing and believing. But still we have to close that gap. And we\u2019re up for that from tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The German coach, who has won trophies with Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, said his squad was too passive against defending champion Argentina. Leading 1-0 going into the 85th minute and in a defensive shell, England surrendered goals to Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and substitute Lautaro Mart\u00ednez amid widely questioned tactics and substitutions by Tuchel.<\/p>\n
He said he trusted his instincts during the match and did not regret his decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s easier that someone takes the blame,\u201d Tuchel added, \u201cI take the blame.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 France and England agree on this: Neither team wanted to be playing on Saturday. France was a favorite to win the World Cup. England was close to ending a decades-long wait for its first World Cup title since 1966. Both fell one match short of their ultimate goals after losses … Continue reading Disappointed France and England meet for third place in the World Cup<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-20 06:43:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1525742,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525741\/revisions\/1525742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}