3rd Place Playoff I.e the game no one cares about. France Vs England.

[Parafox]

Possibly the best and most enjoyable game of the tournament. Regardless of anything else, credit to both teams.

Edited 9 hours ago by Parafox

[bovril]

Great finale to the world cup, from the two greatest nations. Heard there's a Spanish language version tomorrow, which is very inclusive. 

[jammie82uk]

Points of interest, 

 

Saka is 3rd English player to have scored an hattrick at the World Cup 

Geoff Hurst & Harry Kane the other two

 

Mbappe has the most goals in World Cup history (leads Messi by one) 

 

Olise has equaled the most assists in a single tournament record held by Pele 

[Leicesterpool]

So England can come home pretty pleased, least they dont come home completely empty handed. 

[Parafox]

10 minutes ago, Jaspa said:

Should've done more against Norway & Argentina then, bloke goes missing in the biggest games. 

 

At least he's been magnitudes better than Wayne Rooney, whose tap in from 3 yards out in a loss against Uruguay was his only World Cup tournament goal for England. 

 

Can't imagine Kane still leading the line again in 4 years. He's a great captain. Need another one to step forward.

Bellingham no question 

[Craig]

Extremely enjoyable, but a shame it's been such an expensive tournament that there wasn't a proper England following there. 

 

I joked beforehand that I hoped England would score a hatful so Mbappe could score a few for my Golden Boot bet

 

Still massively annoyed at Tuchel for Wednesday night, and tonight probably makes that even worse. 

 

 

 

 

[Heathrow fox]

41 minutes ago, jammie82uk said:

Points of interest, 

 

Saka is 3rd English player to have scored an hattrick at the World Cup 

Geoff Hurst & Harry Kane the other two

 

Mbappe has the most goals in World Cup history (leads Messi by one) 

 

Olise has equaled the most assists in a single tournament record held by Pele 

What about our Gary v Poland 86?

[jammie82uk]

36 minutes ago, Heathrow fox said:

What about our Gary v Poland 86?

You are obviously correct, I somehow missed that when I was looking at the goal scoring list 

[gerblod]

5 hours ago, CrispinLA in Texas said:

We deserve to be in the in the final. 

And get stuffed by an even better team? France vs Spain was the real final. Last night, when Deschamps brought on the big guns, we conceded three goals in short order and were lucky with several near misses. We didn't "deserve" anything. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

37 minutes ago, gerblod said:

And get stuffed by an even better team? France vs Spain was the real final. Last night, when Deschamps brought on the big guns, we conceded three goals in short order and were lucky with several near misses. We didn't "deserve" anything. 

Rather than saying we deserve to be in the final, I would say that we have been entertaining, which is a refreshing change.

 

England have been a hard watch for about a decade and I haven't bothered watching them for years until the WC finals.

[CruzNoir]

It’s going to be a long 4 years to wait for a chance to amend Wednesday night, however last night certainly in some ways for me personally atleast allows a little softener to end this WC on a plus, and no doubt a little bit for our players as well.

 

that was a cracking match to end on.

[LCFCJohn]

What happened here then 

 

It sounded like loads of tickets in the ground were not purchased and I can’t imagine TV figures were very high. Which of course FIFA deserve.

 

Cashcow big names to make money over football for them.

 

Hopefully a really dull final. 0-0 and a shit shootout win for Spain would do.

 

Or a couple of early goals for Spain and they just stifle the match.

 

[fox_favourite]

I fell asleep at half time as I was knackered and just checked the result!! Wowser. Wish I had the stamina to stay awake 

[Beliall]

always rated the 3rd place playoff. 3rd is for winners, 2nd is for losers

[RowlattsFox]

Just put the highlights on this morning to show my lad and it was mental. France should have won the game based on the chances second half, Olise should have had 4 himself.

 

So many occasions where players were running in behind. 

Entertaining stuff. 

[Super_horns]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Rather than saying we deserve to be in the final, I would say that we have been entertaining, which is a refreshing change.

 

England have been a hard watch for about a decade and I haven't bothered watching them for years until the WC finals.

Certainly the first and last games were entertaining but not sure about the rest as they were so tense and sometimes frustrating.

 

Pulled a few results out of the bag with two excellent wins particularly.

 

Just a shame one poor half an hour let us down .

[purpleronnie]

Best finish since 1966.

 

SACK THE MANAGER!!!

[st albans fox]

Trying to give unused players minutes nearly cost us that game from 4-0 up

watkins wasn’t the player to replace rashford - should have been Gordon.   Toney stayed on too long. our lack of another six with two unavailable meant rice had to stay on when he was running on empty. Anderson should have come on earlier to shore up that screen in front of the back 4. 
 

and Bellingham is the best 8 in world football. running from deep is his biggest strength. He’s not as good a ten. His ability means he can do that job but you then stifle his running with the ball. we have others who can play as a ten (if we need to have one). 
 

if we can find some better defenders then we can win something. 

[Stuntman_Mike]

I assumed it would be the highest scoring WC game but nope;

 

1st) Austria 7-5 Switzerland in 1954 2nd) Brazil 6-5 Poland (AET) in 1938 2nd) Hungary 8-3 West Germany in 1954 2nd) Hungary 10-1 El Salvador in 1982 5th) France 7-3 Paraguay in 1958 6th) Argentina 6-3 Mexico in 1930 6th) Hungary 9-0 Korea Republic in 1954 6th) West Germany 7-2 Turkey in 1954 6th) France 6-3 West Germany in 1958 6th) Yugoslavia 9-0 Zaire in 1974

 

[LanguedocFox]

Thought that was a fantastic game, and bollocks to anyone who says it was meaningless. We scored six without our top scorer on the field, and beat one of the best teams in the world.

 

I’m looking forward to the Euros (assuming we qualify). It will be interesting to see what new players come through over the next couple of years. Will Monga be there or thereabouts?

[Raj]

So England can  play when they attack, theres no pressure and they dont get bullied!!!😁

[fox_up_north]

Just watching the highlights.  Definitely an air of end of term feeling. Glad of a win but France really didn't bother. I think they were still shell shocked from Spain.

[Raj]

43 minutes ago, LanguedocFox said:

Thought that was a fantastic game, and bollocks to anyone who says it was meaningless. We scored six without our top scorer on the field, and beat one of the best teams in the world.

 

I’m looking forward to the Euros (assuming we qualify). It will be interesting to see what new players come through over the next couple of years. Will Monga be there or thereabouts?

🤣🤣

Cmon now as a spectacle  it was great entertainment but it WAS meaningless.

As above France only woke up in the 2nd half and I think they only had 4 regulars playing.

Englands team was still top notch.

 

Great game but utterly meaningless

[st albans fox]

Second game that quansah started and couldn’t finish 

 

how many unfit defenders did we take ??.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

3 hours ago, gerblod said:

And get stuffed by an even better team? France vs Spain was the real final. Last night, when Deschamps brought on the big guns, we conceded three goals in short order and were lucky with several near misses. We didn't "deserve" anything. 

France conceded 4 in short order to our second string side, then conceded 2 more, without us playing our 2 best players for 90% of the game, what's your point? France couldn't even score in their semi final. 

 

If belittling England was a national sport we'd be runners up only behind Argentina.