Key events
10 min: News that Dan Burn is warming up to come on and lead the defensive effort has been exaggerrated.
9 min: Rice has chance to whip in free-kick just down to the left, by the touchline. Konate, who has started well, gets it clear.
8 min: France are penned back, Saka and Toney both getting glimpses, but then Cherki sets off a counter and Mbappe cannot quite control the ball. The lack of jeopardy has allowed this game an element of cavalier spirit.
7 min: Rampant England. Rice has looked great. Saka also keen to get involved and the ball ends with Rashford, whose shot is fierce but deflected behind.
6 min: Konate steps across to deny a pass aimed for Toney.
5 min: France, who suffered their own disappointment, try to relaunch. Rabiot shows off his skill but cannot find Doue or Mbappe.
4 min: Big smiles from Harry Kane, applause from Thomas Tuchel, Rice’s celebration is muted. Let’s hope England don’t try and sit on this lead….
Goal! France 0-1 England (Rice, 3)
Well, what a start. Rice picks up a loose Doue ball and drills past Maignan.
2 min: A Rashford ball is aimed for Toney and headed away by Lacroix…
We are go in Miami….
1 min: France, in break from tourney tradition, do not hoof the ball out of play. Did they not get the memo? It’s at a slow pace, it’s hot and muggy out there. Djed Spence and Marcus Rashford link early down the left. Jarrell Quansah is playing on the right.
Charles Antaki, a man of culture, gets in touch: “I’m half-watching the BBC coverage online, doing something else on a different tab – they’re just showing images of a players warming up with some background music, presumably being played over the stadium PA. Nothing unusual so far… Except… Surely not? Yes! They’re playing a Charles Aznavour number. Charles Aznavour! Classic French crooner, total French icon, almost certainly a Légion D’Honneur. If they ‘re going to match that with a Brit, one wonder who it will be- Sir Cliff?”
Surely Sir Cliff. Perhaps Mark E Smith.
Here comes the English national anthem. Declan Rice is captain, which is one clue as to why he might have wanted to play.
Pravin Gopal gets in touch: “I find it laughable that Arsenal fans like Tom Johnson et al are complaining about England playing Saka and Rice. It was Arteta who ran them into the ground and played them while injured in his mythical quest to win the Premier League and Championship. If anybody is to blame for the injuries to them, which have been carried over while playing for Arsenal, it should be Arteta!”
In other news, Darren Fletcher in the commentary box, having dropped in the Battle of Agincourt, is telling viewers he’d like to take his shirt off because of the heat. Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel and Didier Deschamps share a manly hug as the national anthems begin, France going first.
Mike Nagle gets in touch: “Great coverage. Thank you very much. France put out a fairly strong team, England a much weaker one. What is going on here? It may be a match that no one wanted to play but it still is one in which we surely want to compete & try to win. What is your take on this?”
I guess England do indifference and the “I never fancied her anyway” better than anyone.
From those in Miami: “audible boos as Tuchel’s name was read out before the game.”
Perhaps Sir Keir Starmer could have styled it out with Tuchel now taking the brunt.
Tom Johnson gets in touch: “It is an absolute disgrace that Saka and Rice are playing. They are both clearly carrying injuries that have stopped them performing at their usual high standards. I hope Arteta is watching and withdraws them from every England game next season. I am bloody furious.”
Perhaps they asked to play, Tom.
Niall Mullen gets in touch: “Tommy T has done the Arne Slot transformation. Every pronouncement seemed wise and on point while his team were winning and now he’s under scrutiny they all seem defensive and laced with self justification. Probably the words are not that different but context has changed the tenor of them completely.”
Social media suggests Arsenal fans are enraged by the inclusion of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka after their fitness problems at this World Cup.
Wenger denies impact of hydration breaks
Story via Reuters: Hydration breaks introduced at the World Cup did not impact the flow of play and had no effect on results of matches but their future is still undecided, Arsene Wenger, Fifa’s chief of global football development said on Saturday.
Wenger said Fifa would review the hydration breaks after the tournament, before taking a decision on whether to use them in future competitions. FIFA made three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half mandatory in every World Cup match but they were not universally embraced.
Critics said the breaks, which essentially cut the game into four quarters, impacted the momentum of matches while allowing broadcasters to benefit from commercial breaks for over two minutes. Fans booed during hydration breaks early on in the tournament.
“No,” Wenger told a press conference when asked whether they had any impact on the games. “Sometimes they did not like them and we have to analyse after the World Cup what is the impact. It did not look to me that it [hydration break] changed the results of the competition. But we are here to serve people who watch football.”
Thomas Tuchel has been speaking in pre-match: “[France] were on their way to the final and seemed the strongest, the strongest team in this tournament. And it was the strongest form and yet they had a total day off. It just tells you we’re like on the same stage and playing for the third place, a very, very difficult opponent, but like I said yesterday, I feel that there’s still a slight gap between us and the top three teams and today we try to close that gap and then we’ll compete and try to get that win because it’s important for us.”
Mark Turner gets in touch: “This whole “Everyone is rooting for Spain” thing is uniquely English (i.e. not even British) and is more about Perfidious Albion’s self-image and myopia. For sure there are places that have traditional enmity with the Albiceleste (the top three are Brazil, Chile and North Mexico) but most of Latin America, most of Africa and the emerging Asian football worlds tend to be very pro-Argentina. It really is time to stop believing your own propaganda.”
I’m not sure who this refers to but point made, Mark.
Jon Collins gets in touch: “Why on earth is Declan Rice, of all people, starting this meaningless match? He’s carrying an injury, has played an unfathomable number of games this season, and looks more in need of a rest than any player I’ve ever seen. He should be on a beach by now, not lining up for yet another game. As Shaun said, Arteta will be rightly furious.
”Also great work on the pod in the home stretch. I hope you’re enjoying New York.”
Thanks, it’s been great fun, with plenty of hard work done by the production team behind the scenes.
Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze together is quite the combination. Rogers very much in the news.
Arsenal were interested in Rogers and made contact with Villa this month but Chelsea have long tracked the 23-year-old’s progress and have moved quickly to land one of Xabi Alonso’s top targets.
The deal is a significant boost for the Spaniard, who was hired as Chelsea’s manager in May. Rogers played an instrumental role in Villa reaching the Champions League and winning the Europa League last season, providing 14 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, and has been a key player for England at the World Cup. He started on the right wing in the semi-final defeat by Argentina and created the opening goal for Anthony Gordon.
The TV commentator on the US coverage is Fletch “Darren” Fletcher, who has just told us that the conditions are so hot in Miami that you “could quite literally get out a knife and cut the heat”. I have never quite understood the metaphor behind that football cliche.
Shaun Lawson gets in touch: “That selection is INSANE. He benches Bellingham when he’s still in golden boot contention: that looks for all the world like punishment for what happened after the Norway game. He starts Rice and Saka, both with huge fitness concerns, burning his bridges with Arteta: who’ll be doing his nut.
“He ignores Watkins despite benching Kane and despite the fantastic form Watkins was in late in the season. Mainoo? He’s blatantly cried off. Can’t say I blame him given his disgusting treatment. I think there’s a thrashing coming here. a humiliation.”
Colum Fordham gets in touch: “I read the email from an American reader with interest and some amusement. While Tuchel may not experience coaching a national team, I think he ignores the fact that Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea and coached PSG. So he hardly lacks international experience.
“But what interests and perplexes me more, given the above, is Tuchel’s decision not to pick players who are comfortable on the ball such as Cole Palmer and Phil Foden, not to mention the creative flair that a player of the calibre of Trent Alexander Arnold could have brought to key moments of matches with his superlative long passes. And Thomas Tuchel’s decision not to even include Mainoo, who had a great second half of the season with Man Utd, on the bench is baffling. Mainoo could have held the ball and supplied forwards like Saka, Rashford or Ollie Watkins in the last 30 minutes against Argentina.”
Big wry smile at the cameras from Thomas Tuchel as he leaves the England bus in Miami.
Brian Dunne has been on: “First of all, a huge shout-out to all of you at The Guardian for your coverage of the World Cup; have been following the live blogs almost every game especially if I couldn’t watch it live.
Clearly neither England nor France really give a damn about this match, and it really doesn’t matter who wins this one. Since everyone else around the world is pretty much fed up with Argentina and Fifa’s shenanigans at this point and are rooting for Spain to win tomorrow, how about England and France here just unofficially agree to not play defense and ensure Mbappe wins the Golden Boot instead of Argentina’s Messi?”
David Wall gets in touch: “For all the discussion about whether England’s increasing defensiveness and eventual collapse stemmed from the players or the manager (and for what it’s worth i’m with Jonathan Liew) i think we’re asking the wrong question. Tuchel was hired specifically for those kinds of situations, to make the decisions that would get the team over the line, and nothing else like culture building that Southgate did so well.
“Whether his decision was to focus just on defending and abandon any attacking intent, or he made some other decision to try to prevent the players doing that naturally themselves, it didn’t work. So he got it wrong. And that raises questions hiring him in the first place. I don’t know if that means he should lose his job, if he can learn from this and make better decisions in the next tournament then hiring him would have been justified. But given he’s so far shown no sign that he even recognises something wrong with his decision making process, let alone a willingness to learn from the mistake, i think there have to be doubts about whether he should continue after this game has finished.”
Harry Desmond has been on: “I think this makes England (and France) the first team to play eight matches at the same World Cup – twice as many as the winners of the first four tournaments. That has to count for something, right? Also, I’d like to propose that we go full Star Wars and start calling it the “3PPO”.”
Lars from Copenhagen gets in touch: “Hi John, greetings from Copenhagen. Here in Denmark (as in Norway) English football has had a special place, since live transmission of one English match became a Saturday tradition in the mid-70s.
”That’s why the Norwegian commentator famously went beserk as Norway beat England – and the happened here in Denmark, when Jesper Olsen slalomed his way through Englands defence and equalised to 2-2 in Copenhagen and later won 1-0 at Wembley and secured the qualification for the Euros in France 1984.
”There was this mythological awe for English football (probably also a little supported by a long lasting thankfulness and respect for the British steeliness during WW2). An awful lot of Danes has a an English team they support from distance (At a sports bar you can find 6 Danes in a group in the range from early 20s to the age of 60 all in Leeds-shirts from different epoques). Or by going on football trips to Anfield, Old Trafford etc.
”So there is this deeply ingrained fondness of English football in Denmark – and it goes way back, much further than the introduction of the Premier League.
”I have friend and colleagues who supports Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea – and I am myself, God help me, of the Spurs conviction – and all are just baffled by the cowardice and incompetence, England showed against Argentina. It was just as inevitable as watching a mud slide.
”That is not, what we as Danish observers understands English football to be. No heart, no guts, no glory.”
Lee Matthews gets in touch: “On TT, I don’t think we all want to play the ‘blame game’ as he says. I think we just want to understand what happened. I think we could move on if he could help us understand what it was like to make that decision under the stressful conditions he and his team were experiencing.
“Sat at home, we can say what we’d do without having to face the consequences. If he could open up and talk us through it, we could understand. More than any other tournament exit, I’m frustrated – my first WC was 1986. If he keeps saying he has ‘no regrets’ and these keep being the headlines, he’ll lose everyone’s support for good. Going for it tonight could help. Win or lose, if he goes for it, he can show what a post-WC TT England team will look like. Open up and talk to us TT and please go for it tonight… Fingers crossed….”
Goalkeeper Mike Maignan, midfielder Adrian Rabiot, forward Michael Olise and captain Kylian Mbappe are the French survivors from the semi-final with Spain. N’Golo Kante is on the bench, having been the non-playing Mainoo of Les Bleus.
Mbappe starts and will be chasing the Golden Boot. Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane are benched and so will have a lower chance of overtaking Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
Steve Farole gets in touch, and at length: “It was a pleasure to see you and the Football Weekly team at the Bowery Ballroom Thursday night. Great show!
“As an American, I’m bemused to see the English descend into your habitual post-tournament recriminations. The cycle is complete: after skepticism, then guarded optimism, you heeded the siren’s call of hope and now that your dreams have crashed upon the rocks, you’re looking for a scapegoat. Tuchel is an easy and, in many ways, appropriate target. England’s performance in the last 30 minutes was craven, his tactics and substitutions were negative and self-defeating.
“But stepping back, why did the FA think that Tuchel would succeed? Specifically, why did the FA believe a manager with no experience in the international game, at any level, would be the right man to lead England to glory? Of the four semi-finalists, England was the only one with a manager who had never been at the business end of a major tournament as either a coach or player: Deschamps was a World Cup winning player before taking the France job and de la Fuente and Scaloni both cut their teeth with their nation’s youth teams. You have to go back to Lippi in 2006 to find a manager who succeeded at a Euros or World Cup with no prior international experience – and even then, his achievements at the club level far outstripped Tuchel’s.”
Jordan Henderson is named on the bench despite a broken arm while Mainoo isn’t? Curious.
France v England teams
France: Maignan, Gusto, Konate, Lacroix, Theo Hernandez, Zaire Emery, Rabiot, Olise, Cherki, Doue, Mbappe. Subs: Samba, Risser, Digne, Upamecano, Kounde, Kone, Dembele, Tchouameni, Thuram, Barcola, Kante, Saliba, Lucas Hernandez, Mateta, Akliouche.
England: Dean Henderson, Quansah, Konsa, Guehi, Spence, Rice, Saka, Eze, Rogers, Rashford, Toney. Subs: Pickford, Trafford, Gordon, James, Madueke, Watkins, Jordan Henderson, Burn, Anderson, Kane, O’Reilly, Bellingham, Chalobah, Stones.
Referee: Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela)
Team news imminent: the big line is that Kobbie Mainoo is out with an injury. “Kobbie Mainoo is ruled out of today’s matchday squad to face France due to injury,” reads an official statement. There’s been seven changes from Atlanta.
On Fox Sports, where they are currently showing IndyCar, they have just described 2026 as the “greatest World Cup in history”. Is that really so?
What of Deschamps himself? He had this to say: “I have a duty for this game. It is not a friendly. It is a third-place playoff. The players, staff, and I have the duty to reach this last objective. It is less important than the final. England does not want to play this game, and neither do we. But here we are.
“We have to set our eyes on that goal to be third and make this final goal a reality. We have this duty when wearing this jersey. In my head I know that it is my last match. I don’t want anybody to cry. The end is near but life goes on.”
There’s another team playing today, and that’s France, in Didier Deschamps’ final game. It is expected he will be replaced by Zinedine Zidane, his former midfield partners. Kylian Mbappe has been paying tribute to the outgoing coach.
“Today is your last dance. You, who have given us so much. We should have given you a better ending, but we failed,” Mbappe wrote in a message shared on social media. “Putting into words what you have brought over 14 years is very difficult, because you have been such a major figure in the rebirth of this team. People have not always known how to appreciate your greatness, but time and history will take care of that.”
What of Thomas Tuchel himself? He’s doubling down. Turns out the man hired to win the World Cup had no chance of doing so with the players at his disposal.
“I believe that three other nations [in the semi-finals] have almost expectations to win the title. This is not us,” said Tuchel. “France, Spain, Argentina expect almost they’re on that level that they expect to win. We are not there yet. There is still a gap to close. This is what we will do from tomorrow. We will not stop. We will not stop hunting. We will not stop challenging. We have things to improve in a football matter. And this is the context. So there is not a lot of room for drama. If drama is needed, if the blame game needs to be played, OK, we can do that. But I have the right to not engage.”
Jonathan Liew did not spare the rod.
Two years of this. Countless millions sunk on tickets, hotels, Ubers, shirts, pizzas, flags, the hours spent on Google Maps trying to locate somewhere to eat after 11pm in Riga, the endless psychodrama over Jude Bellingham and whether he should have been left at home or not (turns out, not). How we bled and sweated over this, over the minor details of the journey, over whether Danny Welbeck had done enough to earn a place in the squad or not (turns out, not). All pointing towards the moment on Wednesday evening when England are 1-0 up in a World Cup semi-final against Argentina and your entire happiness rests on whether a bunch of millionaire footballers and a millionaire German coach can keep their shit together for 40 minutes, or not.
The England inquest will continue whatever happens here. Here’s Ed Aarons.
Despite the Football Association’s best efforts to produce players who are able to “intelligently dominate possession” as outlined when it launched its “England DNA philosophy” at St George’s Park back in December 2014, there is still a shortage of top-class central midfielders with the technical skills required to win a World Cup semi-final.
Niall McVeigh cast this ugly duckling of a fixture in a positive light.
Yes, the third-place playoff can have a hungover, world-weary vibe, but it can also be a lot of fun. The goals-per-game average is higher than in the final, and the TPPO has never gone to penalties. But does the result matter? It depends who you ask. Back in 1982, France lost an all-time classic semi-final on penalties to West Germany, and were extremely laissez-faire against Poland just two days later. “Our hearts were elsewhere,” Alain Giresse recalled 40 years on. “We had pulled the plug.” On the other hand, Poland’s 3-2 victory meant they matched their best-ever performance, having also won the TPPO against Brazil in 1970. Plenty of other teams have secured a new personal best via this fixture, including Austria, Chile, Portugal, Turkey and Belgium, whose 2-0 triumph over a checked-out England sealed third place in 2018, and a rousing civic reception when the squad returned home.
Preamble
Should you even be watching? The game nobody wants to take part in – though is nice to win – is set for Miami. Should England’s reserve team – and we expect a reserve team – win, then this will represent the best national team performance since 1966. The best since is fourth in 1990 and 2018, previous third-place matches lost to Italy and Belgium. It’s also a chance to rescue Thomas Tuchel’s reputation from the shame of Atlanta. Didier Deschamps can sign off with a third place, to follow second and being champions in the previous two. It’s also a chance for stats-padding, with Kylian Mbappe eyeing the golden boot. See: there is some point to this game after all.
Join me.