France and England will meet in the World Cup third-place match on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, a fixture neither camp seems eager to play after semifinal defeats to Spain and Argentina. It is the kind of game that survives on the schedule even when the appetite for it has gone missing.
That is why the search interest is there today: the match is official, dateable and awkward, with Thomas Tuchel saying no one wanted it and that France had one fewer day of rest than England. He said neither the French players nor his own side had wanted to play for third place after missing the final, and promised a professional approach anyway.
The weight of the game is still real for France. Kylian Mbappé, who has eight goals in the tournament, said after the loss to Spain that he wanted to go on vacation and “virar a página,” a line that fit the mood around the squad. A source cited by L’Équipe said the French group returned to the Bentley University training center near Boston after the defeat, and that the players were devastated to have to face the third-place match.
Didier Deschamps put the matter in harder terms. France, he said, still has a third-place finish to compete for and a duty to honor the commitment. “It is not a friendly,” he said in substance, adding that even if it may not change anyone’s life, the players are obliged to see it through. That duty comes at the end of his spell in charge, which began in 2012 when he replaced Laurent Blanc, and has taken France to the 2018 title and the 2022 final.
The friction is obvious: FIFA keeps the third-place match for commercial and broadcast-rights reasons, while the players and many supporters treat it like an afterthought. The game is still the 103rd in the expanded World Cup, and it still carries one last layer of meaning for Mbappé, who has eight goals in the tournament and 20 in World Cups, closing in on Lionel Messi’s 21. It also closes one era and opens another, with L’Équipe saying Zinedine Zidane is expected to take over France from September 1.
So the match that no one wanted is still the one everyone must play. France and England will walk out in Miami with very different levels of enthusiasm, but the result will still go into the record book, and Deschamps will leave with one final World Cup assignment done rather than deferred.
