England have booked their place in the World Cup quarter-finals after a fairly comfortable 3-0 win over Senegal last night.
It was a game where the Africa champions started the better of the two sides, although they were unable to take either of the pair of scoring opportunities that fell their way in the opening half an hour. However, after Jordan Henderson opened the scoring with a well-executed counterattacking goal, it always seemed likely that the English would go on to win.
They did so without much trouble in the end, largely thanks to the performance of Jude Bellingham in midfield.
England have set up a date with France in the quarter-finals, a game Didier Deschamps' side will enter as favourites. However, there seems to be no shortage of belief among their opposition.
Declan Rice talks up England's chances against France
Declan Rice is never one that's shy to sing his own praises, most recently when hinting that he had outgrown his current club. Of course, he does have a bit at jumping at a better offer when it comes along.
He has repeatedly said that England have not been given enough credit over the last couple of years for their achievements. While they have made good runs in the last two major tournaments, they did so while playing some rather uninspiring football and after benefitting from kind draws.
The game against France will be a good test of their current standing, but Rice said that his current international team are the ones that should be feared.
Speaking to The Athletic after last night's game, he said that England have already identified the weaknesses in France ahead of that game on Saturday.
I’ve said it all along. I don’t think we’ve been getting the credit we’ve been deserving.
When you look at other nations like Holland and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and they get called masterclasses. With us, it always gets picked off.
If you look at the last couple of games, it’s been faultless. Countries should be starting to fear us now.
I think against the big teams there has always been talk about us using the ball. This tournament we’ve controlled every game. We’ve moved the ball really well.
Opening stages have been shaky when teams are trying to stop us playing, but after the goal it opens up and you really start to see us play.
Against France, we’ve seen some weaknesses in them we can try to exploit and it’ll be a great game.
Of course, France are likely to have picked a few holes in their next opponents themselves.
England are certain to face their biggest attacking threat of the tournament in this fixture, with Kylian Mbappe set to feature for the opposition. Having looked shaky at the back at times against Senegal and the USA, you'd imagine that the PSG player could get some joy in that game.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
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