{"id":672532,"date":"2026-07-17T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=672532"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:22:22","slug":"2026-world-cup-third-place-play-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/17\/2026-world-cup-third-place-play-off\/","title":{"rendered":"France vs England: Predicted Lineups for 2026 World Cup Third Place Play-off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the predicted lineups and team news ahead of the 2026 World Cup Third Place Play-Off at the Miami Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Despite many, including players and fans, not wanting this game following the disappointment of their semi-final defeats in midweek, the game must be played. Both head coaches are expected to ring the changes and give minutes to those who have featured less than they would have liked.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/16\/england-player-ratings\/\" target=\"_self\">England Player Ratings For 2026 World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>France vs England: Predicted Lineups for 2026 World Cup Third Place Play-off<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> Saturday, July 18, 2026<br \/>\n<strong>Venue:<\/strong> Miami Stadium<br \/>\n<strong>Kick-off:<\/strong> 23:00 France, 22:00 UK, 17:00 Local<br \/>\n<strong>Last meeting:<\/strong> England 1-2 France (2022 World Cup Quarter-Final)<br \/>\n<strong>Referee:<\/strong> Jesus Valenzuela<br \/>\n<strong>Current odds:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe width=\"430\" height=\"335\" style=\"border: 0; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 0; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/live-odds.casinokings.com\/embed\/30310503\" scrolling=\"no\" loading=\"lazy\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>France Team News<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s the end of an era for the French as head coach <span>Didier Deschamps takes charge of his last game. His 14 years in charge have brought one World Cup winners medal and one runner-up place. Plus a runner-up medal in the European Championships. With this being his last game, he and his team will be desperate to give him a good send-off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Current Golden Boot holder <span>Kylian Mbappe will be hoping to get the goals to beat Lionel Messi to be this years top scorer and become the first player to win the Golden Boot twice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>William Saliba (back) and Brice Samba (calf) will be missing for this game, with Deschamps likely to make several changes to the team that was beaten by Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Rayan Cherki and Desire Doue are likely to start ahead of Bradley Barcola and <span>Ousmane Dembele, while Ibrahima Konate and Warren Zaire-Emery could start in central midfield. Changes are also expected in defence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Deschamps Believes No One Wants to Play This Game<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBhf0NXlzq\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4458px; aspect-ratio: 4458\/2973;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of the game and also his last in charge of the French national team, Didier Deschamps gave his thoughts on the World Cup third-place play-off. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/07\/17\/france-dont-want-chocolate-medal-match-but-team-want-to-deliver-for-departing-deschamps\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He said<\/a>: <span>\u201cI have a duty for this game. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt is not a friendly. It is a third-place \u2060playoff. The players, staff, and I have \u200bthe duty to reach this last objective. It is \u200bless important than the final. England does not want to play this game, and neither do we. \u200cBut here we are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>England Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBM5ADLHyk\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 5685px; aspect-ratio: 5685\/3809;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>England boss Thomas Tuchel, who, following the defeat against Argentina, is under huge pressure and scrutiny, could change his entire team to give some of his squad their first minutes of the tournament and give others another chance to impress going forward.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the Three Lions boss and his team will want to end on a high, finish this World Cup as the third-best team, and give their fans who have travelled thousands of miles one last thing to shout about before heading home.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Henderson is out, and Reece James is a doubt. Declan Rice, who has struggled during the tournament with a sickness bug and neural pain in his hamstring and lower back, is not expected to start.<\/p>\n<p>Tuchel could give Kobbie Mainoo and one of his other keepers their first starts. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham could start as they hope to find the goals that could bring them the World Cup Golden Boot.<\/p>\n<h3>Thomas Tuchel Believes Nothing Could Have Helped Them Against Argentina<\/h3>\n<p>Three Lions head coach Thomas Tuchel believes that there is a weakness in England&#8217;s DNA. Speaking ahead of Saturday&#8217;s World Cup third place play-off <a  href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/england-argentina-world-cup-live-falklands-messi-malvinas-latest-13535760\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he said<\/a>: <span>&#8220;In this moment my feeling was no structure in the world could have helped us,&#8221; Tuchel says, &#8220;because actually we were too passive and we were not physical enough, we didn&#8217;t stop runners arriving in our box and the deliveries were wrong too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t seen the data yet, but I think just right after the goal the momentum swings completely and ball possession drops dramatically. We couldn&#8217;t find any duels anymore, that&#8217;s why we dropped deeper and deeper, it was never the plan, but it happened.<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I think ball possession plays then a crucial role, it&#8217;s maybe not in our DNA like it is in our Spanish DNA or in our Argentinian-Brazilian DNA, to take the ball and control the game with the ball.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Predicted Lineups for 2026 World Cup Third Place Play-off<\/h3>\n<h3>France Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n<p>Maignan<br \/>\nGusto<br \/>\nLacroix<br \/>\nKonate<br \/>\nT Hernandez<br \/>\nZaire-Emery<br \/>\nKante<br \/>\nOlise<br \/>\nCherki<br \/>\nDoue<br \/>\nMbappe<\/p>\n<h3>England Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n<p>Henderson<br \/>\nQuansah<br \/>\nO\u2019Reilly<br \/>\nKonsa<br \/>\nBurn<br \/>\nMainoo<br \/>\nAnderson<br \/>\nBellingham<br \/>\nSaka<br \/>\nRashford<br \/>\nKane<\/p>\n<p><strong>Score Prediction:<\/strong> France 2-2 England<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image courtesy of IMAGO \/ Bihlmayerfotografie<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the predicted lineups and team news ahead of the 2026 World Cup Third Place Play-Off at the Miami Stadium on Saturday. Despite many, including players and fans, not wanting this game following the disappointment of their semi-final defeats in midweek, the game must be played. Both head coaches are expected to ring the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":672533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1828,161,30,9367,2132],"tags":[798,32736,32735,31871,32867,450,32746,32731],"class_list":["post-672532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fixtures","category-international-football","category-news","category-predictions","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-england","tag-england-fixtures","tag-england-predicted-lineup","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-france","tag-france-fixtures","tag-france-predictions"],"modified_by":"Barry Dixon, LWOF Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672532"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672557,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672532\/revisions\/672557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}