Saka strikes hat-trick; Mbappe slips away from Messi in a bona fide thriller
6 min readNew JerseyJul 19, 2026 06:36 AM IST The minds stalked the past, treading the grey lines between what could have or what should have been. But the eyes wandered into the future, what could, what abounded for the two teams that lost the semifinals in distinctive ways. France lost in tactics; England lost in the weight of emotions. Both combined to produce a wild thriller, a tennis set score of 6-4 in England’s favour, which could have made a sure-shot case to enter the thriller hall of fame, had it not been for the peculiarly intrinsic nature of third-place games, struck between a formality and a ghost match. The spectators were absurdly entertained, there was a goal every tenth minute if the stoppage allowances were taken into account. Bukayo Saka, confined to cameos in the knockouts, as he was not optimally fit, pummeled the lapses in French defence, seemingly disinterested, the 90 minutes on the field a punishment for the collective shutdown against Spain. In the second half, it was England’s to be sloppy, …






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