Rating every player in England’s astonishing 6-4 World Cup third-place play-off win over France.
Maybe England didn’t want to play in the World Cup’s ‘bronze medal match,’ as FIFA insists on calling it, but they certainly made sure that they enjoyed themselves in Miami. Helped along by France’s complete indifference in the first half and a strong end-of-term vibe, the Three Lions signed off by winning an open-ended thriller which could have finished with just about any scoreline imaginable.
The stakes may have been low but England were clearly determined to go out on a high and fly home with some self-respect in their hand luggage – while a few players might just have been playing for their place in Thomas Tuchel’s future squads for the upcoming Nations League and Euro 2028 campaigns. Whatever the reasons that England’s players might have been keen to impress, many succeeded in their mission. Not all of them, however.
For the final time in the tournament, we’ve rated all of England’s players out of 10 after the 6-4 win over France to assess who made their point and who might be headed off on their holidays with a few regrets to mull over.
Spence impresses again but defence’s second-half struggles were a worry
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Dean Henderson – 7/10: Henderson may have shipped four goals but it’s hard to see what he could have done about any of them. He also made a series of fine stops – a one-on-one save against Kylian Mbappé might have been the best of them even if he was later flagged for offside – and did enough to suggest that England probably don’t need to panic too much if they ever lose Jordan Pickford to injury.
Djed Spence – 8: The knockout rounds of this World Cup have done wonders for Spence’s reputation, and he was outstanding again in Miami. A bundle of boundless energy, Spence threw himself into every battle – he won no fewer than 10 one-on-one duels – and summoned up a string of dangerous forward runs, one of which resulted in Bukayo Saka’s hat-trick sealing penalty.
Marc Guéhi – 5: Composed in the first half and reliably solid when he found himself in close proximity to a French attacker, Guéhi nonetheless lost his bearings quite badly in the second period and struggled to keep his positioning tight against an onslaught of pace and attacking intent. Too easily stranded as the goals flowed, and it felt as though his concentration had dipped once England took a commanding lead.
Ezri Konsa – 6: We’ve bumped Konsa’s score up a bit due to his fine header for England’s second goal, but it’s fair to note that he was culpable for both of Mbappé’s goals and found it even harder than Guéhi to get his positioning right, making it all too easy at times for France to get the ball in behind and get shots away. Like his defensive partner, he did at least do just about everything right when he was able to get near an opposing attacker, but that wasn’t quite as often as he might have liked.
Jarell Quansah – 5: Restored to the starting line-up after suspension, it’s fair to say that Quansah didn’t make an especially strong case to be England’s right-back of the future. Quiet in the first half, he was often caught out of position once France turned the heat up and completely lost track of Bradley Barcola as the PSG winger surged in behind to score his side’s second.
Saka & Rice shine but Toney fails to make his point
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Declan Rice – 9: Rice took the game by the scruff of the neck from the very start, scoring a brilliant goal (aided, admittedly, by some astonishingly lazy defending) before whipping a superb corner onto Konsa’s head for England’s second. His creative drive and rugged work off the ball made a remarkable win possible – although he did, admittedly, give the ball away in lax fashion before Ousmane Dembélé’s late goal.
Marcus Rashford – 7: Rashford had a couple of lovely moments before he was hooked at half-time, not least the rasping 30-yard effort which stung the palms of Mike Maignan, and kept his cool wonderfully well to tee up Saka for England’s third goal after surging unguarded into the opposing half on the counter. He probably should have scored himself beforehand, mind you.
Eberechi Eze – 7: Eze played a fine transitional role for England in the first half, constantly finding half-spaces between the French lines to move possession around, and his assist for Saka’s second goal was a thing of absolute beauty, a sharp turn and lethal through ball which probably represented the single finest piece of skill in the match. Eze did, however, drift out of the picture somewhat in the second half before being substituted.
Morgan Rogers – 6: Lots of huff and puff in midfield from Rogers, but the soon-to-be Chelsea man probably didn’t do enough to make any meaningful case for Jude Bellingham’s place going forward. The only member of England’s starting attack who didn’t create any clear-cut chances for himself or others.
Bukayo Saka – 10: Even visibly slowed by his persistent Achilles problem, Saka proved that he can still be absolutely lethal. He took all three of his goals with tremendous poise and composure and created some golden opportunities with his vision and passing range, including the counter-attack which led to his own second and Bellingham’s late strike. A magnificent performance which suggested that even if he never gets that dangerous burst of acceleration back, he can still be a world-class player thanks to technique and skill alone.
Ivan Toney – 5: Perhaps the player with the most to prove in England’s line-up, the Saudi-based striker failed to make his mark. He did force a fine save from Maignan with a header from a corner and made a few threatening runs into space, but twice passed up highly presentable opportunities – failing to get on the end of a superb ball across the face of the goal and later failing to take advantage of a wonderful flicked ball over the top of the French defence.
Bellingham brilliant again from the bench
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Ollie Watkins (on for Rashford 46’) – 5: Largely anonymous up front, Watkins was robbed of possession too easily in the run-up to France’s first goal and only managed a single, rather optimistic, effort on goal during his 45 minute run-out. A pretty tame performance which served to underline how important Harry Kane is to this team.
Jude Bellingham (on for Eze 79’) – 8: You can do a lot in 10 minutes, it turns out, such as start a penalty-winning move with a raking cross-field pass to Rogers, or score a solo goal that looked like it was scored by a seasoned Pro Evo player toying with his less experienced opponent on the PlayStation. Bellingham was, once again, quite brilliant.
Elliot Anderson (on for Toney 79’) – 6: Anderson, on the other hand, didn’t really get into the game during his cameo. Tidy on the ball when he got hold of it, he was really no more than a peripheral figure.
Reece James (on for Quansah 83’) – 6: Much the same can be said of James, but the Chelsea full-back did find time to snuff out a couple of potentially dangerous attacks with some fine one-on-one defending before the final whistle.
Trevoh Chalobah (on for Guéhi 90’) – N/A: Given just a few minutes at the death as a nod to his work in training after being called up as late injury cover, we’re not giving Chalobah a grade – although we will note that he could have done much better with Dembélé’s goal and made it far too easy for the PSG winger to cut back inside of him to score.