Declan Rice insists England have given France something to worry about
Declan Rice believes quarter final opponents France should ‘FEAR’ England following their rampant World Cup victory over Senegal… as he insists the Three Lions have silenced the critics with their performances
- England reached the quarter finals of the World Cup after a win over Senegal
- The Three Lions will next face France who claimed a 3-1 victory over Poland
- Reigning champions France are one of the favourites to lift the trophy in Qatar
- Declan Rice believes Gareth Southgate’s side don’t get the credit they deserve
- He says that other countries should ‘fear’ the Three Lions at this tournament
- Click here to follow all the news and updates in our live World Cup blog
Declan Rice believes Gareth Southgate’s rampant England have given France something to worry about ahead of the teams’ World Cup quarter-final in Doha this Saturday.
The West Ham midfielder enjoyed another good night as England beat Senegal at Al Bayt Stadium and believes Southgate’s team have nothing to fear ahead of their meeting with the World champions.
Asked if France should be scared of England, Rice said: ‘Yeah, I’ve said it all along. I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances.
Declan Rice says countries should ‘fear’ England following their impressive World Cup displays
Rice enjoyed another good night as the Three Lions reached the quarter finals with a 3-0 win
‘I think if you look at other teams, like Holland and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and they get called masterclasses.
‘With us, it always gets picked off. The negative things always come that way.
‘If you look at the last couple of games, it’s been faultless. I think countries, like I said the other day, should be starting to fear us now because we’re a great team.’
After four games of this World Cup, England have scored the most goals and kept the most clean sheets.
‘We’re silencing the critics,’ said Rice. Going into the tournament, there was a lot of talk that we don’t score enough goals.
‘That’s another one we’ve kept people quiet on. There was a lot of scrutiny around the defence and conceding goals, but it’s been solid.
Rice has been part of a team that has scored the most goals and kept the most clean sheets
‘We’re going to keep building and pushing.’
Rice is part of a new three-man England midfield with Jude Bellingham and Jordan Henderson that is helping England move through the tournament.
Bellingham, the Borussia Dortmund teenager, was the star of the show once again against Senegal and Rice added: ‘He’s thriving on the main stage. It makes me happy to see that.
‘When you have a player like that who is so strong and athletic and creating the chances he’s creating it really helps. He’s been doing it at Dortmund all season and now he’s doing it for us.
‘I thought it was a real collective team performance all over the pitch.
‘These are the games we want to play in now. They only come round once. England versus France, quarter-final, it doesn’t get bigger than that.
England next face Didier Deschamps’ France – one of the favourites to lift the trophy in Qatar
‘We’ve got six days to prepare now and I’m sure the world will be watching.
‘We really want to progress.’
If England can beat France to reach then last four of the World Cup, it would represent the third successive semi-final reached by Southgate’s team.
England lost the 2018 World Cup semi-final to Croatia and then succumbed to Italy on penalties in the final of Euro 2020 three years later.
Rice thinks this team is an improvement on both those versions and said: ‘We’ve been pushing so well as a team. ‘We’re really together now on the pitch and off the pitch.
‘As a team we really complement each other really well. The boys I’m playing with in midfield, we really complement each other.
‘The boys up front, Gareth can bring in an attacker and nothing will change.
‘And the back four has been absolutely solid. We’re building a really nice foundation but it’s down to us now.
England will have to stop the likes of Antoine Greizmann and Kylian Mbappe on Saturday
‘There’s no point buzzing about tonight if we can’t push on and beat France.’
Previous criticism of England has centred around Southgate’s perceived negativity as coach but Rice thinks this team is slowly putting that to bed.
‘Against the big teams, there has always been a lot of talk about us using the ball,’ he added.
‘I think in this tournament we’ve pretty much controlled every game. We’ve had a fair share of possession, we’ve moved it really well.
Rice believes England’s performances are putting previous criticisms surrounding Gareth Southgate’s (left) perceived negativity in his style as manager to bed at the World Cup
‘The opening stages have been really shaky because teams are really trying to stop us playing.
‘But once we get that goal, they have to change. It opens up and then you really start to see us play.
‘Against France, we’ve seen some weaknesses in them that we can try to exploit. It’s set up for a great game.’
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