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4 min readJul 19, 2026 07:16 AM IST
Bukayo Saka is 4th England player to have scored a World Cup hat-trick. (AP Photo)
The FIFA World Cup third-place playoff, rebranded this year as the bronze medal match, is normally a game that no side ever wants to play and head coaches of both England and France had said the same in the run-up to the match in Miami on Saturday. It was also evident from the way the sides played, with scant attention given to defending, all of which led to the match ending up being a record breaking exhibition.
England raced to a 4-0 lead in the first half against a French side who were looking slightly lost. The English players themselves hardly celebrated the goals. However, things changed when France came out all guns blazing and cut England’s lead down to one goal in the second half. At the end of the slug fest, there were big smiles on the faces of both sets of players, as was the case for the fans in the stands who ended watching a 10-goal thriller. England won it 6-4.
Here we take a look at some of the records to have been either broken or equalled in the match:
64 – This was the first time in 64 years that both teams had scored four or more goals in a World Cup match. The last time this happened was a 4-4 draw between the Soviet Union and Colombia at the 1962 World Cup
10 – This is the most number of goals ever scored in a third-place playoff match at the World Cup. The previous highest was the nine scored in 1958 by France and West Germany, with the French winning that game 6-3.
It is also the highest-scoring World Cup game overall in 44 years. The previous highest was Hungary’s 10-1 win over El Salvador at the 1982 World Cup
22 – Kylian Mbappe scored twice in the match, thus taking his tally in World Cups to 22 goals. It makes the highest goalscorer of all time in the history of the tournament, a record that was broken by Lionel Messi earlier in this year’s tournament itself and was held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose before the start of the 2026 World Cup. Messi could still reclaim the record if he scores two goals in the final on Sunday for Argentina against Spain, he is currently on 21 goals
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10 – Mbappe also overtook Messi in the race for the golden boot with his brace on Saturday. He is also the first player since German great Gerd Muller in 1970 to score 10 goals at a single World Cup. Messi will have to score at least three goals or score two and get an assist in the final to win the golden boot this year.
7 – Michael Olise finishes with seven assists in this World Cup, which is the most in the last six decades. The previous record of six was held by Brazil legend Pele which he had managed at the 1970 World Cup.
7 – Jude Bellingham has finished with seven goals for the tournament, it is the most by an England player in a single edition of the World Cup. The previous record of six was held by Gary Lineker at the 1986 World Cup
4 – Bukayo Saka is 4th England player to have scored a World Cup hat-trick, joining his captain Harry Kane (2018 group stage vs Panama), Lineker (1986 group stage vs Poland) and Geoff Hurst (1966 final vs West Germany)
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