England have secured their best men's World Cup finish since winning the tournament 60 years ago. Is their performance at the 2026 edition being under-appreciated?

Third place is England's best finish at a men's World Cup since they won the tournament on home soil in 1966 Saturday's thrilling, and at times ridiculous, 6-4 win against France in the 'bronze final' means England's men secured their best World Cup finish since winning the tournament 60 years ago. The Three Lions started this tournament ranked fourth in the world and ended with a third-place finish - reaching the semi-finals for just the third time since 1966. But amid reports of in-squad disagreements over manager Thomas Tuchel's tactics and a second-half semi-final collapse against Argentina, how should their 2026 campaign be viewed? Has their second-best World Cup ever been under-appreciated? Or was this another missed opportunity? This may have been England's best World Cup for 60 years, but at best it was par for the course and at worst a failure. Head coach Tuchel was brought in to get over the barriers that have blocked England at World Cups before, so this was simply the same old story when they went out to Argentina in the semi-final. Tuchel, for all the knockout expertise during his club coaching career, failed when the pressure was on.