2026 World Cup: "Legendary manager" Didier Deschamps will bid farewell to France after England contest

Ahead of France's third-placed playoff with England at the 2026 World Cup, Sports Mole's Senior Reporter Oliver Thomas discusses Kylian Mbappe and Didier Deschamps, with the latter standing down as head coach of the Blues after the match.

Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter: "A send-off for Deschamps"

I expect Mbappe to play, purely because he is still in the race for the Golden Boot.

After winning it in 2022, he'll have his eyes on becoming the first player to win the Golden Boot twice at a World Cup.

Mbappe has a decent chance of winning it - he has an easier fixture against England than Messi has against Spain's defense.

England have been far from watertight defensively, and Mbappe will fancy his chances of scoring.

Elsewhere, if there is rotation, you'd look at the likes of Rayan Cherki, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Marcus Thuram and N'Golo Kante in midfield - players who'll be hoping to earn some minutes in this match.

Rotation is possible, but whether it'll be as many as eight, nine or ten changes remains to be seen.

This game can act as a send-off for Deschamps. He'll step down after this World Cup, after 14 years in charge, and it looks like Zinedine Zidane might be the man to take over.

Heading into this third-place playoff, Deschamps has a pretty good record with France - 186 games in total, winning 122 of those, with France scoring 400 goals - impressive over that period of time.

He's reached two World Cup finals as a manager, losing in 2022 but winning in 2018. He's one of only three people ever to win a World Cup as both a player and a manager, having won it as a player in 1998.

Deschamps had his critics at times during his tenure, but overall he will be remembered as a legendary manager who brought a lot of success to French football and to this national side.

For him personally, it's been a difficult World Cup, having dealt with the emotion of the passing of his mother.

Hopefully for him and for France, they can end this tournament on some sort of high with a win on Saturday, even if it comes against England.