England has not won a World Cup medal since winning gold on home soil in 1966.
After a 60-year wait, the English can celebrate again.
"We had a brilliant first half and a turbulent second half. You can see the difference an extra day's rest makes, we are so, so tired. Big respect for the mentality we are showing," said England manager Thomas Tuchel.
Early lead
England captain Declan Rice gave the team the lead in the third minute with a solo goal. He was also behind the 2-0 goal in the 19th minute when he headed in a corner from Ezri Konsa.
At the end of the first half, Bukayo Saka made it 4-0.
For the second half, France made four substitutions, and it had an effect.
It was France's turn to score after three minutes, when Kylian Mbappé made it 1-4 in the 48th minute after a fine pass from Michael Olise. Minutes later, Mbappé played in Bradley Barcola, who made it 2-4.
Mbappé's show
At 3-4 it was time for Mbappé again, once again after a nice combination with Olise. With that goal, Mbappé became the World Cup's all-time leading scorer - although Lionel Messi has the chance to reclaim the record in Sunday's World Cup final.
France had no shortage of chances to level the score at 4-4 after that. Olise had several chances to equalise, but failed to break England's clean sheet.
Instead, England were awarded a penalty in the 85th minute after Malo Gusto tripped Djed Spence in his own penalty area. Saka converted to make it 5-3 and the Arsenal player completed his hat-trick.
But it didn't end there.
Drama until the end
Six minutes into added time, Ousmane Dembélé reduced the score to 4-5, and the tension was turned up again.
But Jude Bellingham quickly extinguished the French hopes with his 6-4 goal in the 98th minute, securing the bronze medal for England.
"Both teams are quite disappointed not to be in the final, but it was about finishing strong and, for us, giving our country the best World Cup result in 60 years," Saka said after the match.
With the ten goals, the bronze medal match became the highest-scoring match of the championship.
"Shameful effort"
The loss was Didier Deschamps' last match as French national team captain, after 14 years in the post.
"After the first half I understood that many people thought it was a shameful performance. I would say we were human. In the second half we came back with the right attitude, but in the end we lost and it was a shame for our coach in particular," Mbappé said after the loss.
Unfortunately, the first half suggested that we let him down and we didn't want to. We want to thank him for everything he has done, this game should not tarnish his reputation.
