France vs. England: Head-to-head record and past meetings

Head-to-head record

Previous meetings: 33

France wins: 10

Draws: 5

England wins: 18

Only separated by a 20-mile body of water at its shortest length, England and France met for the 33rd time in senior men's international football during the World Cup 2026 third-placed playoff.

Some may be surprised to learn that the Three Lions currently hold the head-to-head bragging rights, having earned 18 victories in competitive and non-competitive matches compared to France's 10, while five draws have been played out.

However, the bulk of England's victories came during the earliest days of this fixture, as the Three Lions won 10 of their first 11 clashes with France between 1923 and 1949, before Les Bleus established themselves as a footballing superpower.

England also enjoyed a brief period of consistent success over France from 1966 to 1982, winning three straight games including two World Cup contests in both of those exact years, triumphing 2-0 in the group stage of the former tournament en route to stardom.

France have flipped the script in more recent battles, though, as England only boast four wins from their last 14 head-to-heads, and just two triumphs from their last 10.

Furthermore, all but one of those successes have come in friendly matches, the most recent exhibition victory being a 2-0 win at Wembley in November 2015, an occasion overshadowed by the Paris terror attacks that took place just four days prior.

Seven years later, France ended England's World Cup 2022 dream with a 2-1 quarter-final success, extending their unbeaten competitive run against England to four games after draws at Euro 2012 and 1992, in addition to a 2-1 group-stage victory in the 2004 Championships.

However, France have never beaten England by more than three goals - earning two 5-2 wins in 1931 and 1963 - while the Three Lions' biggest win in this fixture was a 6-0 friendly thrashing in 1927; Dixie Dean netted a double.

Thomas Tuchel's England then incredibly hit France for six yet again in 2026, as they survived a monumental scare to prevail 6-4 in the World Cup third-place playoff, thus sealing their best Mundial result in 60 years.