England Beat France 6-4 in the Third-Place Match: Saka's Hat-Trick, but Tuchel Still Owes a Debt of Trust

Bukayo Saka put the ball in the net for the third time, and France's back line was still pushing up as if nobody had told them the match was already settled. The third-place play-off ended 6-4 in England's favour. I watched the tape twice, and on the second pass I stopped counting goals. I counted how often the ball travelled from one penalty box to the other without a single player intervening properly. That frequency was far higher than anything I have recorded in any other third-place match. It is an easy game to watch, but it says nothing about the winner's capacity to win a tournament.

That is why I do not file this victory in the same drawer as matches that actually carry weight.

A cycle that wears a squad down

England reached the third-place match after losing to Argentina in the semi-final. They did not have their strongest squad. Cole Palmer, Declan Rice, Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento all withdrew through injury. Those five names stretch from central midfield to both flanks, meaning Thomas Tuchel lost his control axis and his rotation options at the same time. When a team loses its best tempo-setting midfielder and its fastest wide runners simultaneously, the first thing it loses is the ability to hold the ball in the opponent's half.

The semi-final against Argentina exposed exactly the weakness the injury list had already signalled. England could not keep possession long enough in midfield, and when they lost the ball, the gap between the midfield line and the back line opened too quickly. Without Rice, nobody covered that space. England's problem at this World Cup was structural rather than temporary.

Tuchel had previously been criticised for an overly cautious approach over the summer. That point matters more than the win over France. A manager accused of caution, in his final match, sent out a team that attacked wildly and won 6-4. That kind of paradox rarely comes from a tactical awakening; it comes from a team with nothing left to lose.

Saka and the limits of evidence

Based on my experience following England matches across several tournaments, I keep one habit: every hat-trick has to be checked twice before it is called a great performance. Saka's first goal came from a transition moment after France had pushed their full-back too high. The second was a finish from a narrow angle, the kind a top winger converts perhaps two times out of ten. By the third, the match was no longer being defended seriously.

Saka deserved that night. But I once mispronounced Perišić's name, and I am never wrong about what I have witnessed: three goals in a third-place match are not proof that England have solved the high-pressing problem posed by elite teams.

Spain and the price of the unbeaten label

At the other end of the ranking, Spain sit first in the FIFA standings. They are European champions and world champions. Luis de la Fuente led them to the 2026 World Cup title with a 1-0 win over Argentina in the final, decided by Ferran Torres in the 106th minute. Earlier, Spain won the 2026/23 Nations League by beating Croatia in the final, and finished runners-up in 2026/21 and 2026/25 — the most recent defeat coming to Portugal on penalties.

De la Fuente has signed a new contract to remain in charge until at least 2032. That is a rare long-term deal at international level, where a single qualifying defeat is usually enough to end everything. Spain also carry a notable record of not losing in regulation time since a friendly against Colombia in March 2026, now stretched to 38 matches.

A contract running to 2032 is only credible if you look at the rest of it: the number of matches, the number of training camps, the number of flights. A contract only exists on paper, and the money evaporated long ago — at international level, what gets eroded is not a transfer fee but recovery time. Football does not end at the 90th minute; it runs to the last line of the bank statement.

Spain's 38-match unbeaten run should be read alongside two facts. Penalty shootouts are not recorded as defeats, so the two Nations League runner-up finishes sit comfortably inside the streak. And in this camp, Spain are without Joan Garcia and Pedro Porro through injury, have lost Marcos Llorente to international retirement, and did not call up Gavi or Borja Iglesias. Their squad includes two players who have never been capped: Ivan Fresneda and Roberto Fernandez.

The world's number one team is also patching its squad with new names. Fans pay the bills, but they are usually the last to see the books — and at international level, those books are the squad list, the document always released as late as possible.

The counter-argument: bronze as a distorting mirror

There is a reverse reading worth considering. The third-place match is the only fixture at a World Cup where neither side still has a survival objective. Low pressure, low motivation, and the consequence is that teams play more openly than they normally would. England scoring six past France does not prove they can score three past Spain in a match that matters.

In the other direction, Tuchel should not be underestimated either. He had to improvise around a long injury list, and the fact that his side retained an attacking structure in their seventh match of a World Cup is a positive sign about physical preparation. England's problem is not their ability to score in open games. It is the games where opponents deny them space to run into.

Spain are that kind of opponent. They control the ball, slow the tempo, and force England to defend on the front foot — something Tuchel's side have not done well without Declan Rice in midfield.

Worth noting that Spain are not in perfect shape either. In this camp they travel to Croatia before hosting the Czech Republic at home. The immediate goal is to extend the 38-match unbeaten run and gain an early advantage in a group widely predicted to be difficult. Croatia away is a test that a squad containing two uncapped players will feel far more keenly than any statistical table.

What remains after this World Cup

Spain have a chance of winning the upcoming meeting, but a draw is entirely possible. England do not have their strongest squad, yet they still have enough to produce a notable match at Wembley, where the atmosphere usually pushes the tempo higher than either side would like.

What I want to keep from this World Cup is not England's bronze medal, nor Spain's 38-match unbeaten run. It is the injury list. Every international window, that list grows longer, and every time it does, a manager must choose between protecting his players and protecting the result. Someone needs to ask a simple question: who is the international calendar actually designed for?