Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have been dropped to the bench by Thomas Tuchel for England’s World Cup third-place match against France.
Bellingham and Kane have been England’s standout players at the World Cup this summer and both players are still being in the running to win the Golden Boot having scored six goals in the tournament so far.
But for the third-place game against France on Saturday, Tuchel opted to name Kane and Bellingham as substitutes with Ivan Toney starting up front, with Morgan Rogers in the No.10 role.
‘It’s just common sense,’ Tuchel said when asked about the decision.
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‘We have so many kilometres in the legs. We have so many travel kilometres in our bones. We have a day less recovery. We come from 10 men in altitude. We come from overtime here in Miami.
England vs France confirmed line-ups
England: D. Henderson; Quansah, Konsa, Guehi, Spence; Rice, Eze; Saka, Rogers, Rashford; Toney
Subs: Pickford, O’Reilly, Stones, Anderson, Kane, Bellingham, Chalobah, J. Henderson, Burn, Gordon, Watkins, Madueke, Trafford, James
France: Maignan; T. Hernández, Lacroix, Konate, Gusto; Rabiot, Zaïre-Emery, Doue; Cherki, Olise, Mbappe
Subs: Akliouche, Barcola, Dembele, Digne, L. Hernandez, Kante, Kone, Kounde, Mateta, Risser, Saliba, Samba, Tchouameni, Thuram, Upamecano
‘These two guys, they gave everything physically in every match. They were ready to go again but we keep them and have them to finish the match for us.’
Tuchel also believes the game against France is a chance for England to ‘close the gap’ on a team who were regarded as the favourites to win the World Cup.
World Cup 2026 Golden Boot standings
Lionel Messi: 8 goals, 4 asissts
Kylian Mbappe: 8 goals, 3 asissts
Erling Haaland: 7 goals, 0 asissts
Jude Bellingham: 6 goals, 1 asissts
Harry Kane: 6 goals, 1 asissts
Ousmane Dembele: 5 goals, 2 asissts
Mikel Oyarzabal: 5 goals, 1 asissts
‘We have the chance to have the best World Cup finish since 60 years, so it’s quite a big one to play in even if it does not feel like it at all,’ Tuchel said.
‘Until the semi-final I think everyone would agree that France are top favourites in this tournament. They won eight years ago, they were in the final four years ago, they were in the Nations League final. They were on their way to the final and seemed the strongest team in the tournament and in the strongest form and had a total day off in the semi-final and got knocked out.
‘It tells you we’re on the same stage as them, playing for third place, very, very difficult opponent but like I said yesterday we feel that there’s still a slight gap between us and the top three teams. Today we try to close that gap and comp
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