In the first half, Tuchel’s England had the French completely under control in the third-place match and inflicted a massive humiliation. Whatever was in the halftime tea afterward — no one will probably be able to explain it.

At the moment, the exact opposite is happening in the second half: England look lethargic and toothless, while France are launching a huge comeback. Mbappé scored to make it 1–4 shortly after the restart. By the drinks break at the latest, hope of still snatching third place today had been fully restored thanks to another goal from Mbappé (66′) and Barcola’s strike (54′). After all, they now need just one more goal to equalize.

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Particularly remarkable: French superstar striker Kylian Mbappé in particular came in for a huge amount of criticism during the first 45 minutes. His body language seemed almost disinterested, and footage from the players’ tunnel made it look as though he had already swapped shirts with an England player beforehand and was giggling about it.

Now, in the second half, he looks like a completely different player — though perhaps France’s coach also repeated a little more loudly in the dressing room that he has little interest in ending his era as national team coach with such a humiliation. Either way, it is having an effect: his team are fully on the front foot, and for the first time in this match they are clearly superior to England.

With his two goals, Mbappé also notched his eighth (!) World Cup brace. He is now up to a total of ten goals at this year’s World Cup and, despite missing out on the final, has a very realistic chance of winning the Golden Boot. Messi is currently in second place with eight goals, but he can still add to that in tomorrow’s final.

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What do you think? Will the French complete this sensational comeback today? Feel free to write it in the comments!

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.