Saka: It was a crazy match, that's part of football

Bukayo Saka, the star of the England national team, spoke to BBC Sport following the thrilling 6-4 victory over France in the third-place playoff of the 2026 World Cup.

Saka said: "It was a crazy match in every sense of the word. We are still very disappointed not to reach the final, but we had to finish the game strongly and give our country the best result in the World Cup in 60 years, so we are happy with the final result."

He added: "I think the first half was in our favor. We won the first half, they won the second half, and in the end, we scored the two winning goals, so I would say that’s how the match went."

On Bellingham granting him the penalty: "No, Jude would never have taken it. He was the first to tell me: go on and score your hat-trick, so no one tried to distract me. I was going to take it anyway."

Regarding his limited participation in the World Cup, he stated: "Of course, I wished to participate more, but it's too late to talk about that. I try to speak for myself on the pitch, and that's done now, so let's move on to what's next."

Reflecting on England's participation in the tournament: "We have built our team gradually throughout the tournament. We achieved amazing results, but in the end, we lost to Argentina. This hurts us a lot, and I’m sure the same goes for our fans back home, but we have to hold our heads high and focus on the next match."

Addressing the controversy surrounding coach Thomas Tuchel, he stated: "I think this is part of the game. When you win, there will be noise, and when you win, there will be noise; the important thing is how to deal with it and how to use it as motivation. Today we finished the match strongly, and that’s all we could do, and we did it."