Bukayo Saka revealed Jude Bellingham’s words of encouragement to him before he scored his third goal in England’s 6-4 win over France.
Saka was an unused substitute during England’s semi-final defeat to Argentina, but returned to the starting lineup for Saturday’s bronze final against France.
And the Arsenal forward delivered a timely reminder of his qualities with a first-half brace as Thomas Tuchel’s side scored four in a rampant first-half display.
However, the Three Lions then threatened an almighty collapse as a brace from Kylian Mbappe, either side of Bradley Barcola’s goal, saw France cut the deficit to just one goal with 30 minutes remaining.
Les Bleus missed a flurry of gilt-edged opportunities to level the tie and were made to pay when England won a penalty after Djed Spence was brought down by Malo Gusto.
Bellingham, brought on as a second-half substitute, quickly grabbed the ball and looked like he was about to take the penalty, but eventually handed the ball over to Saka, who stepped up to complete his hat-trick.
The Real Madrid star eventually got in on the act in added time with a supreme solo goal as England secured a remarkable 6-4 victory.
And speaking at full-time, Saka revealed that Bellingham was fully behind him and had no intention of taking the penalty himself.
‘No, Jude was never taking it,’ he told BBC Sport. ‘He was the first one to say go and get your hat-trick, so none of them came to distract me. I was always going to take it.’
On the remarkable encounter more generally, Saka added: ‘It was a crazy, crazy game. We’re both still quite disappointed to not be in the final but it was about finishing strong and for us giving the country the best finish in the World Cup in 60 years, so we’re happy with the final result.
‘I think the first half went for us. We won the first half, they won the second half and in the end we got the two goals to win the game, so I’d say that’s how the game went.’
Saka started just two games prior to the third-place play-off, having arrived at the tournament with an ongoing Achilles injury from the end of the club season.
However, the 24-year-old suggested he was fit and would have liked to have played more minutes this tournament.
‘Of course I would love to have played more but it’s too late to talk about that,’ he said. ‘I try to do my talking on the pitch and it’s done now, move on.’
Saka, though, did show his support for Tuchel after a bruising few days for the German following his controversial tactics in England’s defeat to Argentina.
‘I think that’s just part of the game,’ he said of the noise surrounding Tuchel following England’s semi-final exit.
‘When you win there’s going to be noise, it’s how you react to it, how you use it as fuel and today we finished strong and that’s all we could really do and we did that.
‘We built and built across the tournament. We had some amazing results and in the end we fell short against Argentina. It hurts a lot to all of us and I’m sure it’s the same to the fans back home but we have to hold our head high and focus on the next one.’
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