The two semi-final losers go head-to-head on Saturday night to decide their final placing in the 2026 World Cup.
France had been tipped by many to go all the way and lift the trophy, but a poor performance cost them the ultimate prize against Spain. England never really found their best form in this tournament, and while poor game management from Thomas Tuchel ended up costing the Three Lions a spot in the final, England were not expected to go as far as they did and overachieved in the end.
Les Bleus were phenomenal throughout the group stage, and all the way up to their semi-final clash with Spain, and while we expect both teams to rotate a few players for this game, we still match France as the big favourite to claim third place. France have played in three third-place playoffs before, winning twice (1958 & 1986) and losing once (1982). England have only made it to three World Cup semi-finals before, and the two that they lost were also accompanied by defeats in the third-place playoff matches (1990 & 2018).
We're backing both teams to score in Saturday's match, as France managed to score in all of their games bar the semi-final against a well-organised Spain side, while England only failed to score in one of their games as well. In fact, both teams scored in five of England's seven matches at the World Cup, which includes all of their knockout ties. France don't concede a lot of goals, but after conceding two in the semi-final against Spain, we're expecting their defence to be breached once again this weekend.
However, we still believe that France will have too much in the final third for a dodgy England defence to handle in the third-place play-off, which is why we're backing a 2-1 win for Les Bleus with Kylian Mbappe to get on the scoresheet once again.
Mbappe has eight goals at the 2026 World Cup and sits level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot. Neither side might not care which of them finishes in third place, but Mbappe will certainly have his eye on scoring at least one goal and finishing as the outright top scorer.
The French talisman finished as the top goalscorer at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as France finished as runners-up to Argentina in the final. The Real Madrid forward has scored in all but two of France's matches at the 2026 World Cup, where he has averaged 0.37 goals per shot on target.
France 2-1 England
