France stars slam 'shameful' display against England in World Cup Bronze Final - 'Saw behaviour I'd never seen before'

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France were defeated in a wild 6-4 third-place play-off match by England in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Speaking after the loss, French midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni said his team-mates were "ashamed" of their first-half performance.

France were 'ashamed' by first-half display against England - Tchouameni

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The two losing semi-finalists met on Saturday night to compete for third place in Miami Stadium.

Spain beat France 2-0 in their semi-final match-up, while England were knocked out of the last four with two late goals from Argentina in a 2-1 defeat.

France had been rated by many as the favourites for the tournament, while England were the fourth seeds going into the competition in North America.

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As such, it was something of a surprise that France had not qualified for the final, and they were the favourites going into Saturday’s match.

However, with the third-place match holding relatively little importance, a strange result is perhaps less of a turn-up than it might have been at another stage of the World Cup, though the circumstances of England’s win were unusual.

England were 4-0 up at half-time before the game ended at 6-4, with Bukayo Saka starring with a hat-trick performance.

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The first-half display from France saw Didier Deschamps’ men well off the pace, and speaking after the match, Real Madrid midfielder Tchouameni was clear that there was a lot to be desired from their initial efforts.

"There was a lot of tension, we wanted to win this game for several reasons, but especially for the coach. It didn't go as we wanted, especially in the first half,” he said.

Kylian Mbappe scored a brace, while Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele all notched in the second half, but a late penalty from Saka proved to be the winner before Jude Bellingham's 98th-minute added-time strike.

”I think we all re-mobilised as a team, and we showed a better face in the second half," Tchouameni added.

”Unfortunately, that wasn't enough because we didn't win this match. So we're obviously disappointed."

Deschamps has now stood down as the country’s head coach, with France legend Zinedine Zidane expected to take over as his replacement.

Tchouameni credited Deschamps with transformative words in the dressing room, and conceded his team-mates were all disappointed with their standards.

He said: "We were ashamed as a team. We knew we weren't playing at our level, we didn't show what we needed, and it could have been even worse.

”So we all got back on our feet.

”The coach made an exceptional speech at the half-time [break] to allow everyone to focus on the second half and, as I said, those were two better things."

Tchouameni wasn't the only one to criticise his team's display, with Adrien Rabiot doing the same.

'We started the first half quite shamefully," the midfielder told BeIN Sports, per The Daily Mail.

"I saw behaviour from some players that I'd never seen before. It's a bit disappointing, because it was the last match to do well in this competition.

"There's a lot of disappointment after the loss against Spain, but there was work to be done until the very end, and we can't just be content with sloppy play like that.

"We talked at half-time, we told ourselves we needed to show some pride, and it was much better in the second half, because in the first half, some of the behavior was unacceptable."

The World Cup final takes place between Argentina and Spain in New Jersey on Sunday evening.

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