Declan Rice insists other countries “should be starting to fear us now” ahead of Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final showdown with France.
England reached the last eight with a comprehensive 3-0 win against Senegal last night to set up a meeting with a France side armed with Kylian Mbappe.
Defending champions France also eased into the last eight with a 3-1 victory over Poland yesterday after Mbappe scored two brilliant goals in an electrifying performance.
The 22-year-old Paris Saint-Germain star looks on a different level to any other footballer on the planet and the prospect of facing his speed and quality is daunting.
But England also have a wealth of attacking talent and Rice insists they are a team to be feared at the business end of the tournament.
Rice feels England have not been given the credit they deserve for their displays at the World Cup and believes they have given France something to worry about.
Asked if France should be scared of England, the West Ham midfielder said: “Yeah, I have said it all along I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances.
“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 has been faultless. I think countries, like I said the other day, should be starting to fear us now because we are a great team.”
Goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka were enough to take England past Senegal. After four games at the World Cup, England have scored the most goals and kept the most clean sheets.
“We are silencing the critics,” said Rice. “Going into the tournament, there was a lot of talk that we don’t score enough goals.
“That is another one we have kept people quiet on. There was a lot of scrutiny around the defence and conceding goals, but it has been solid. We are going to keep building and pushing.”
Jude Bellingham produced another outstanding display last night, as the fearless 19-year-old ran the game to evoke memories of Paul Gascoigne at Italia ‘90.
Phil Foden said last night he has no doubt Bellingham will become the best midfielder in the world and the 19-year-old is relishing the chance to test himself against Mbappe.
Bellingham said: “Mbappe is a brilliant player, one of the top two, three, possibly No1 in the world, so to test myself against him and the rest of the other quality players will be a pleasure and we are looking forward to the game.”
Rice, who is part of a new three-man midfield with Bellingham and Jordan Henderson that is flourishing for England in Qatar, said: “Jude is 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 is creating it really helps. He has been doing it at Dortmund all season and now he is doing it for us.
“I thought it was a real collective team performance, a lot of energy, some great goals. We knew Senegal posed a massive threat. But we shut them down and we march on again.
“Against the big teams, there has always been a lot of talk on us using the ball. I think in this tournament we have pretty much controlled every game. We have had a fair share of possession, we have moved it really well.
“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. We are really together now on the pitch and off the pitch.
“As a team we really complement each other really well. The boys I am 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 are building a really nice foundation but it is down to us now.
“These are the games we want to play in now. They only come round once: England versus France, quarter-final, it does not get bigger than that. We have got six days to prepare now and I am sure the world will be watching. We really want to progress.
Southgate has said England will relish testing themselves against “the very best” at the Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday and Rice insists they have seen vulnerabilities in France.
“We have seen some weaknesses in them that we can try to exploit,” he said. “It is set up for a great game.”
