France Vs England will be played at Miami Stadium in Miami on Saturday at 5pm (21:00 GMT), but it is a match that carries far less weight than either side wanted. After semifinal defeats to Spain and Argentina respectively, France and England are left to contest the third-place playoff, a bronze-medal game that offers pride more than reward.
The bigger story, at least from a France perspective, is that this will be Didier Deschamps’ final match in charge. The man who led France to the 2018 World Cup title and the 2022 final is stepping down after 14 years, making this a farewell appearance rather than the ending he would have wanted.
Deschamps' final match in charge
Deschamps has spent more than a decade building France into one of international football’s most reliable forces. That is why Saturday matters, even if the fixture itself does not carry the prestige of the World Cup final.
He said: “France have no choice but to show up.”
It is a simple line, but it reflects the reality of the occasion. Both teams have already missed out on the chance to lift the trophy, yet France still have one last performance to deliver for a coach who has shaped an era.
What England and France are playing for
Thomas Tuchel was equally blunt about the mood around the match, saying: “None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match.” He added: “They want to play the final.”
That is the awkward truth of a third-place playoff. It exists, but it is never the game either squad imagines when the tournament begins. England and France both came into the World Cup with title ambitions, and both now face the task of recovering enough focus to finish on a positive note.
Tuchel also said: “We gave everything to achieve that. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but that’s how it is.”
For England, the match is a chance to leave North America with a win. For France, there is a little more attached to it because of Deschamps’ departure. Even so, the competitive reward remains limited compared with what the final would have brought.
Mbappe and the last chance to finish strongly
Kylian Mbappe, the 27-year-old forward, still has something personal at stake. He has already produced eight goals and four assists in the tournament, and France will look to him again if they want to end on a high.
There is also the wider matter of reputation. France have reached a semifinal and a final under Deschamps, and Mbappe has been central to both of those runs. A third-place finish would not erase that, but it would at least prevent the campaign from ending in back-to-back defeats.
So while the third-place playoff may not feel like the game anyone truly wanted, it still has meaning. For England, it is about finishing the tournament properly. For France, it is about that as well, but also about sending Deschamps off with one last result to remember.
