Regarding the World Cup third-place match, German legend Lothar Matthäus shared his views.
In an interview with Bild, Matthäus said: "I don't think any player would want this game, because every player who makes it to the semi-finals wants to get to the final, and everything else is irrelevant."
"Of course, this means one more match. One more match naturally means extra revenue for FIFA. We've talked about this many times; they want to get everything they can. However, there may also be some players on the field who have rarely or almost never played before, representing their country."
"However, in terms of the result, whether it's third or fourth place doesn't matter. Ideally, like in some other sports, the two teams that lose in the semifinals would be tied for third place and each would receive a medal or something. But to be honest, this competition is ultimately a bit pointless."
"However, we can also recall the 2006 World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, where Germany played Portugal and won. This still generated some buzz in that World Cup – Germany was eliminated by Italy in the semi-finals and then played that match. So it can be seen that fans would still accept this match."
At 05:00 Beijing time on Sunday, July 19, France will face England in the World Cup third-place match.
