There are consolation prizes, and then there is whatever unfolded at Hard Rock Stadium. England and France, denied their date in Sunday's final, poured everything left in the tank into a bronze-medal match that swung from serene to farcical and back again, finishing 6-4 to the English after a second half that abandoned all pretence of caution.

England had this won by the interval. Four goals to the good, cruising, imperious, they looked like a side determined to leave Miami with something to show for a summer's labour. And then France remembered who they were. Kylian Mbappé and a cast of counter-attacking accomplices dragged the score back to within a single goal, threatening the most improbable comeback of the tournament.

In the end it took a penalty and a stoppage-time flurry — Bukayo Saka completing his hat-trick from the spot, Ousmane Dembélé pulling one back deep into added time, and Jude Bellingham having the final, decisive word — to settle a contest that will be replayed for years. Not a final, but few finals will ever be this alive.

A ruthless first half

England could scarcely have started better. Inside three minutes Declan Rice arrowed a right-footed shot from outside the box into the bottom corner, a strike of pure conviction that set the tone. Rice was at it again on 18 minutes, this time as the provider, swinging over a cross from a corner that Ezri Konsa met with a header steered into the bottom right.

Two became three, then four, in a devastating burst of attacking football. Saka finished a fast break in the 37th minute, Marcus Rashford releasing him to lash a left-footed shot into the high middle of the net. On the stroke of half-time, Eberechi Eze slid a through ball into Saka's path and the winger obliged once more, tucking away his second before the whistle blew.

At the break France looked broken, England untouchable. Four goals without reply against one of the tournament's great attacking sides is a statement of intent, and the English support inside Hard Rock Stadium began to dream of a rout. Football, though, rarely reads the script it is handed.

France roar back

The second half belonged, for a long and unnerving stretch, to France. Three minutes after the restart Mbappé pounced, Michael Olise threading a through ball for the striker to sweep home off his left foot. The counter-attacks came in waves now, England's back line suddenly stretched and scrambling.

On 54 minutes Mbappé turned creator, feeding Bradley Barcola to slot into the bottom-left corner and halve the deficit. Twelve minutes later the comeback caught fire properly: Olise again the architect, Mbappé again the finisher, drilling low into the bottom right for his second and France's third. From four goals down, the French were one strike from parity.

England, so serene an hour earlier, were clinging on. Every French surge threatened calamity, every clearance felt borrowed. The bronze medal, apparently secured before half-time, had become a thing to be defended with nerve and gritted teeth as Mbappé and company hunted the equaliser that would have redefined the afternoon.

Saka and Bellingham decide it

The relief, when it came, arrived from the penalty spot. In the 87th minute Saka stepped up to complete his hat-trick, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way with a left-footed finish into the bottom right and restoring England's two-goal buffer. It felt, briefly, like the definitive blow.

France refused the ending. Six minutes into stoppage time Dembélé finished a fast break laid on by Dayot Upamecano, thumping a left-footed shot into the bottom-left corner to make it 5-4 and set nerves jangling one final time. The French smelled one more chance; the English braced for a siege.

Instead, it was Bellingham who supplied the coda. Two minutes after Dembélé's strike, England broke at pace and Bellingham arrived to sweep a right-footed finish into the bottom right, sealing a 6-4 win and killing the comeback stone dead. Ten goals, four for England after the interval alone, and a match that will be remembered long after the medals have gathered dust.

A bittersweet farewell

For England, there is genuine pride to be taken from the manner of this. Saka's hat-trick, Rice's opening flourish and Bellingham's clinching strike are the sort of contributions a nation carries into the next cycle. Reaching the semi-finals and finishing third at a World Cup is no small return, even if the lingering ache of falling short of the final will not fade quickly.

France, meanwhile, will wrestle with the strangest of afternoons. To concede four before half-time and then very nearly reel the whole thing back in speaks to both their frailty and their extraordinary attacking reserves. Mbappé's brace, Barcola and Dembélé's late defiance offered a glimpse of what might have been had the first half not run so catastrophically away from them.

Both squads now disperse, the tournament winding towards its Sunday climax without them. There will be inquests and there will be regrets, but there will also be this: a third-place match that delivered a full season's drama in ninety-eight minutes. England took the bronze, France took the plaudits for the fightback, and Hard Rock Stadium took a spectacle it will not soon forget.