It might not have been the ending they were targeting pre-tournament but, having downed France in an exhilarating bronze final, England have registered their best finish at a FIFA World Cup™ since 1966.
At the heart of an extraordinary penultimate fixture at the was Three Lions winger Bukayo Saka. The Arsenal dynamo became just the fourth Englishman to score a hat-trick at the global finals, after Geoff Hurst in 1966, Gary Lineker 20 years later and then Harry Kane at Russia 2018.
Speaking post-match, the 24-year-old forward reflected on a standout evening in Miami, where he also became the third England player to score three goals or more in two editions of the World Cup, after Lineker and Kane.
“That was fantastic. It was enjoyable and an amazing achievement of course. I’ve just been told there's only four players for England that scored World Cup hat-tricks, and you know who those players are as well. That is an elite list to be part of. It makes me very proud.”
As much as Saka and Co were desperate for things to end in the north-east of the country, rather than the south, Miami will now hold a special place for England fans as the setting where the nation ended their most successful World Cup on foreign soil.
“I think it was more about finishing the tournament strong because as a group that's what we deserve. Obviously we believe as a whole we should have gone all the way and that we should be playing tomorrow, not today. But the reality is that we were playing today and we just wanted to finish strong. I’m happy we’ve done that.”
Having rotated his starting XI for England’s final outing, England coach Thomas Tuchel will be delighted with how those changes played out. In their concluding fixture of the tournament, England drew level with France, with 20 goals, as the top scoring nation, with Saka later revealing his coach’s parting words to the squad.
“He just told us how proud he is of us and that he's going to miss us. We're going to miss each other. You know, the six, seven weeks we bonded like crazy. That was the message and we leave with a proud feeling of what we've done today as a team, and we’ll focus on winning next time.”
Sources: FIFA Official
