Brian Dunne expressed his appreciation, stating: “First of all, a huge shout-out to all of you at The Guardian for your coverage of the World Cup; have been following the live blogs almost every game especially if I couldn’t watch it live.
It seems neither England nor France is particularly invested in this match, and the outcome holds little significance. Given that many around the world are tired of Argentina and FIFA’s antics and are hoping for a Spanish victory tomorrow, perhaps England and France could agree to forgo defense entirely to allow Mbappe to secure the Golden Boot instead of Argentina’s Messi?”
David Wall shared his perspective: “For all the discussion about whether England’s increasing defensiveness and eventual collapse stemmed from the players or the manager (and for what it’s worth I’m with Jonathan Liew), I think we’re asking the wrong question. Tuchel was hired specifically for those kinds of situations, to make the decisions that would get the team over the line, and nothing else like culture building that Southgate did so well.
“First of all, a huge shout-out to all of you at The Guardian for your coverage of the World Cup; have been following the live blogs almost every game especially if I couldn’t watch it live. Clearly neither England nor France really give a damn about this match, and it really doesn’t matter who wins this one. Since everyone else around the world is pretty much fed up with Argentina and Fifa’s shenanigans at this point and are rooting for Spain to win tomorrow, how about England and France here just unofficially agree to not play defense and ensure Mbappe wins the Golden Boot instead of Argentina’s Messi?”
Harry Desmond remarked.
“For all the discussion about whether England’s increasing defensiveness and eventual collapse stemmed from the players or the manager (and for what it’s worth i’m with Jonathan Liew) i think we’re asking the wrong question. Tuchel was hired specifically for those kinds of situations, to make the decisions that would get the team over the line, and nothing else like culture building that Southgate did so well. “Whether his decision was to focus just on defending and abandon any attacking intent, or he made some other decision to try to prevent the players doing that naturally themselves, it didn’t work. So he got it wrong. And that raises questions hiring him in the first place. I don’t know if that means he should lose his job, if he can learn from this and make better decisions in the next tournament then hiring him would have been justified. But given he’s so far shown no sign that he even recognises something wrong with his decision making process, let alone a willingness to learn from the mistake, i think there have to be doubts about whether he should continue after this game has finished.”
Lars from Copenhagen reached out.
“I think this makes England (and France) the first team to play eight matches at the same World Cup – twice as many as the winners of the first four tournaments. That has to count for something, right? Also, I’d like to propose that we go full Star Wars and start calling it the “3PPO”
Lee Matthews commented: “On TT, I don’t think we all want to play the “Hi John, greetings from Copenhagen. Here in Denmark (as in Norway) English football has had a special place, since live transmission of one English match became a Saturday tradition in the mid-70s.” as he says. I think we just want to understand what happened. I think we could move on if he could help us understand what it was like to make that decision under the stressful conditions he and his team were experiencing.
“On TT, I don’t think we all want to play the ‘blame game’ as he says. I think we just want to understand what happened. I think we could move on if he could help us understand what it was like to make that decision under the stressful conditions he and his team were experiencing. “Sat at home, we can say what we’d do without having to face the consequences. If he could open up and talk us through it, we could understand. More than any other tournament exit, I’m frustrated – my first WC was 1986. If he keeps saying he has ‘no regrets’ and these keep being the headlines, he’ll lose everyone’s support for good. Going for it tonight could help. Win or lose, if he goes for it, he can show what a post-WC TT England team will look like. Open up and talk to us TT and please go for it tonight… Fingers crossed….”
Goalkeeper Mike Maignan, midfielder Adrian Rabiot, forward Michael Olise, and captain Kylian Mbappe are the French survivors from the semi-final against Spain. N’Golo Kante is on the bench, having been the non-playing Mainoo of Les Bleus.
Mbappe starts and will be pursuing the Golden Boot. Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane are benched, thereby diminishing their chances of surpassing Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
Steve Farole shared: “It was a pleasure to see you and the Football Weekly team at the Bowery Ballroom Thursday night. Great show!
“It was a pleasure to see you and the Football Weekly team at the Bowery Ballroom Thursday night. Great show! “As an American, I’m bemused to see the English descend into your habitual post-tournament recriminations. The cycle is complete: after skepticism, then guarded optimism, you heeded the siren’s call of hope and now that your dreams have crashed upon the rocks, you’re looking for a scapegoat. Tuchel is an easy and, in many ways, appropriate target. England’s performance in the last 30 minutes was craven, his tactics and substitutions were negative and self-defeating. “But stepping back, why did the FA think that Tuchel would succeed? Specifically, why did the FA believe a manager with no experience in the international game, at any level, would be the right man to lead England to glory? Of the four semi-finalists, England was the only one with a manager who had never been at the business end of a major tournament as either a coach or player: Deschamps was a World Cup winning player before taking the France job and de la Fuente and Scaloni both cut their teeth with their nation’s youth teams. You have to go back to Lippi in 2006 to find a manager who succeeded at a Euros or World Cup with no prior international experience – and even then, his achievements at the club level far outstripped Tuchel’s.”
Jordan Henderson is named on the bench despite a broken arm while Mainoo isn’t? Curious.
France: Maignan, Gusto, Konate, Lacroix, Theo Hernandez, Zaire Emery, Rabiot, Olise, Cherki, Doue, Mbappe. Subs: Samba, Risser, Digne, Upamecano, Kounde, Kone, Dembele, Tchouameni, Thuram, Barcola, Kante, Saliba, Lucas Hernandez, Mateta, Akliouche.
England: Dean Henderson, Quansah, Konsa, Guehi, Spence, Rice, Saka, Eze, Rogers, Rashford, Toney. Subs: Pickford, Trafford, Gordon, James, Madueke, Watkins, Jordan Henderson, Burn, Anderson, Kane, O’Reilly, Bellingham, Chalobah, Stones.
Referee: Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela)
Team news imminent: the big line is that Kobbie Mainoo is out with an injury. “Kobbie Mainoo is ruled out of today’s matchday squad to face France due to injury,” reads an official statement. There have been seven changes from Atlanta.
On Fox Sports, where they are currently showing IndyCar, they have just described 2026 as the “greatest World Cup in history”. Is that really so?
“I have a duty for this game. It is not a friendly. It is a third-place playoff. The players, staff, and I have the duty to reach this last objective. It is less important than the final. England does not want to play this game, and neither do we. But here we are. “We have to set our eyes on that goal to be third and make this final goal a reality. We have this duty when wearing this jersey. In my head I know that it is my last match. I don’t want anybody to cry. The end is near but life goes on.”
There’s another team playing today, and that’s France, in Didier Deschamps’ final game. It is expected he will be replaced by Zinedine Zidane, his former midfield partner. Kylian Mbappe has been paying tribute to the outgoing coach.
“Today is your last dance. You, who have given us so much. We should have given you a better ending, but we failed,” Mbappe wrote in a message shared on social media. “Putting into words what you have brought over 14 years is very difficult, because you have been such a major figure in the rebirth of this team. People have not always known how to appreciate your greatness, but time and history will take care of that.”
What of Thomas Tuchel himself? He’s doubling down. Turns out the man hired to win the World Cup had no chance of doing so with the players at his disposal.
“I believe that three other nations [in the semi-finals] have almost expectations to win the title. This is not us,” said Tuchel. “France, Spain, Argentina expect almost they’re on that level that they expect to win. We are not there yet. There is still a gap to close. This is what we will do from tomorrow. We will not stop. We will not stop hunting. We will not stop challenging. We have things to improve in a football matter. And this is the context. So there is not a lot of room for drama. If drama is needed, if the blame game needs to be played, OK, we can do that. But I have the right to not engage.”
Jonathan Liew did not hold back.
“intelligently dominate possession”
The England inquest will continue regardless of the outcome today. Here’s Ed Aarons.
“Our hearts were elsewhere,”
Niall McVeigh portrayed this seemingly insignificant match in a positive light.
“Yes, the third-place playoff can have a hungover, world-weary vibe, but it can also be a lot of fun. The goals-per-game average is higher than in the final, and the TPPO has never gone to penalties. But does the result matter? It depends who you ask. Back in 1982, France lost an all-time classic semi-final on penalties to West Germany, and were extremely laissez-faire against Poland just two days later. ‘Our hearts were elsewhere,’ Alain Giresse recalled 40 years on. ‘We had pulled the plug.’ On the other hand, Poland’s 3-2 victory meant they matched their best-ever performance, having also won the TPPO against Brazil in 1970. Plenty of other teams have secured a new personal best via this fixture, including Austria, Chile, Portugal, Turkey and Belgium, whose 2-0 triumph over a checked-out England sealed third place in 2018, and a rousing civic reception when the squad returned home.”
Should you even be watching? The game nobody wants to take part in – though is nice to win – is set for Miami. Should England’s reserve team – and we expect a reserve team – win, then this will represent the best national team performance since 1966. The best since is fourth in 1990 and 2018, previous third-place matches lost to Italy and Belgium. It’s also a chance to rescue Thomas Tuchel’s reputation from the shame of Atlanta. Didier Deschamps can sign off with a third place, to follow second and being champions in the previous two. It’s also a chance for stats-padding, with Kylian Mbappe eyeing the golden boot. See: there is some point to this game after all. Join me.
- World Cup 2026
- France
- England
- World Cup
