Highest scoring World Cup matches ever after England & France share 10 goals | OneFootball

England and France shared 10 goals in their 2026 World Cup third-place play-off, making it one of the highest-scoring games in the tournament’s history.

The 6-4 win for England was like something out of a Pathe film, with defences optional and goals flying in from all angles.

We’ve dug into the archives to identify the highest-scoring games in World Cup history.

=5. France 7-3 Paraguay (1958)

Just Fontaine scored 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup, a record for a single tournament, including a hat-trick against Paraguay in the opening group game.

The Paraguayans had eliminated World Cup royalty Uruguay in the qualifiers, but were no match for a turbo-charged France.

After going 3-2 behind early in the second-half, Fontaine’s team blew Paraguay away with an avalanche of goals. They’d go on to finish third, France’s equal-best tournament until 1998.

=5. England 6-4 France (2026)

Madness. And made the decision to defend deep for 35 minutes against Argentina even more galling.

Neither team appeared too bothered about third-place before the match in Miami, but eyebrows were raised when England raced into a 4-0 lead before half-time.

France attempted the most improbable comeback in World Cup history by reducing the scoreline to 4-3, before Bukayo Saka completed his hat-trick, Ousmane Dembele stuck Trevoh Chalobah on his backside for the ninth goal and Jude Bellingham completed the scoring with a mazy solo run.

Madness. And galling in equal measure.

=2. Hungary 10-1 El Salvador (1982)

The 1982 World Cup was the first with 24 teams, prompting criticism that the tournament was being watered down.

This was largely not true in the event, except for El Salvador conceding 10 to Hungary in their opening group game.

Lazlo Kiss came off the bench to score the fastest hat-trick in World Cup history, netting his three goals in just seven minutes.

Still, the biggest celebrations came when Luis Ramirez reduced the score to 5-1 and recorded El Salvador’s only World Cup goal to date.

Both teams went out in the first round, but the Central Americans tightened up considerably and only conceded three to Belgium and Argentina combined.

=2. Hungary 8-3 West Germany (1954)

A curate’s egg of a match, with West Germany beating Hungary in the final weeks after this 8-3 thrashing.

But manager Sepp Herberger used the tournament’s farcial format to his advantage and rested most of his first-teamers against the Magical Magyars.

West Germany knew they’d have a play-off against Turkey, a team they’d already beaten 4-1, for a quarter-final place regardless of his result.

They won that 7-2, beat Yugoslavia and Austria in the knockouts, before surprising Hungary to win the World Cup.

Ferenc Puskas was also injured in this match, making his contribution thereafter negligible. Their 31-game unbeaten run was ultimately for nowt.

=2. Brazil 6-5 Poland (1938)

Poland’s Ernst Wilimowski – who scored four times – and Brazil’s Leonidas both scored hat-tricks in this riotous first round match in Strasbourg.

After a 4-4 draw in normal time, Leonidas hit two in extra-time to send Brazil through and Poland home after one match (the 1938 tournament was a straight knock-out; FIFA could learn from this).

1. Austria 7-5 Switzerland (1954)

This match was played in 40-degree heat, despite being staged in Lausanne. Perhaps both defences and goalkeepers had heatstroke, considering what unfolded.

Both Austria’s Theodor Wagner and Josef Hugi of Switzerland helped themselves to hat-tricks before the hour mark and the scoring was over by the 76th minute after Austria’s seventh.

Neither of these Central Europeans were as interesting at World Cups again, despite Switzerland’s 21st century improvement.