Declan Rice claims rivals should be fearing ‘great’ England as Three Lions prepare to face France in World Cup quarter-final

Declan Rice believes the exploits of a “great” England team at the 2022 World Cup should be striking fear into the hearts of international rivals. 

​Southgate’s side into the last eightTop scorers at Qatar 2022Defence & attack silencing doubters

WHAT HAPPENED? The Three Lions have been making impressive progress in Qatar, with a resounding 3-0 victory over Senegal in the last-16 seeing them book a quarter-final date with reigning champions France. Gareth Southgate’s side have collected three victories from four games so far, becoming the highest scorers in the tournament along the way, with any pre-tournament doubters being silenced in style.

WHAT THEY SAID: West Ham midfielder Rice said: “I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances. If you look at other teams, like the Netherlands 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 should be starting to fear us now because we’re a great team.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Rice added on England’s efforts at both ends of the field: “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. We’re going to keep building and pushing.”

IN THREE PHOTOS:

DID YOU KNOW? England have reached the World Cup quarter-finals for a 10th time, reaching this stage twice each under Walter Winterbottom (1954 and 1962), Alf Ramsey (1966 and 1970), Bobby Robson (1986 and 1990), Sven-Goran Eriksson (2002 and 2006) and Gareth Southgate (2018 and 2022).

WHAT NEXT? England are due to face France in the last eight on Saturday, with the Three Lions looking to at least match their efforts from 2018 – when they reached the semi-finals before coming unstuck against Croatia.