England’s Jude Bellingham Helped Teammate Bukayo Saka Get A Hat Trick Then Scored His Own Record Breaking Goal
Bellingham’s goal sealed England's 6-4 win and third place at the World Cup.
In one of the most dramatic third-place matches in the World Cup, England beat France 6-4, and the moment that stole the show was a penalty shot that England’s Jude Bellingham chose not to score.
The third-place match is played by the two teams that lose their World Cup semifinals to decide who finishes third and fourth overall.
It is often treated as a low-stakes game because neither team made the final, but this year's match between England and France turned into one of the most thrilling of the tournament.
Both England and France came out playing all-out attacking football rather than treating the match as a formality.
England’s Declan Rice scored two minutes into the game, one of the fastest goals in the country's World Cup history, and England’s Ezri Konsa added a second in the 18th minute.
England’s Bukayo Saka then scored twice before halftime, in the 37th and 46th minutes, putting England ahead four-nil.
France fought back hard in the second half with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice, becoming the first player to score 10 goals in a single World Cup since West Germany's Gerd Müller in 1970 and winning his second Golden Boot in a row for the tournament's top scorer.
In the 85th minute, France's Malo Gusto fouled England's Djed Spence inside the penalty area, and the referee awarded England a penalty.
Bellingham, who had come on as a substitute, picked up the ball and walked to the penalty spot.
Many watching assumed he would take the shot himself, since he was closing in on a World Cup scoring record for an English player.
Instead, Bellingham waited for Saka to arrive, then handed him the ball.
Saka said afterward that the decision had never been in question.
"No, Jude was never taking it," he told the BBC after the game. "He was the first one to say go and get your hat trick, so none of them came to distract me. I was always going to take it."
Saka scored the penalty in the 87th minute to complete his hat trick.
Bellingham then settled the match soon after with a solo run and a record-setting goal of his own, his seventh of the tournament, making him the English player to score the most goals in a single World Cup edition.
Bellingham’s goal sealed England's 6-4 win and third place at the World Cup.
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