Declan Rice, who asserted that other nations will dread the Three Lions, believes that England is not receiving the credit it merits for its World Cup performances.
Despite a slow start on Sunday at Al Bayt Stadium, Gareth Southgate’s team easily defeated Senegal 3-0 to go to the World Cup quarterfinals.
Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane, and Bukayo Saka all scored goals to give England a Saturday tie with France. Jude Bellingham was the star of the show.
Although Southgate’s pragmatic approach to major tournaments has drawn some criticism, England is leading the competition after four games with 12 goals while only giving up two goals on the opposite end.
“I’m delighted. It was a real top performance,” Rice said.
“There was a lot of energy, some great goals. We knew Senegal posed a massive threat but we shut them down and now we march on.
“I’ve said it all along – we’ve not been getting the credit we deserve with our performances. If you look at other teams, like the Netherlands and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and it gets called a masterclass, but with us it always gets picked off.
“If you look at our last couple of games we’ve been faultless. Other countries should be fearing us now.
“I think we’re starting to silence the critics. Going into the tournament there was always a lot of talk that we don’t score enough goals – again, that’s another one we’ve kept people quiet on. There was scrutiny around the defence and conceding goals but it’s been solid so we’re going to keep building and pushing.”
Rice did add: “We’re building a solid foundation and it’s down to us now – there’s no point being buzzing about tonight if we can’t push on and beat France.”
At the basis of England’s midfield, Rice displayed his customary composure, but Bellingham stole the show.
The midfielder for Borussia Dortmund was instrumental in both Henderson’s first-half goal and Kane’s 2-0 expansion of the lead just before halftime.
“He’s thriving on the main stage,” Rice said of the 19-year-old. “It makes me happy to see that, when you’ve got a player like that who is so strong and athletic, creating the chances he’s creating.
“He’s been doing it for Dortmund all season and is now doing it for us. It was a real collective team performance from us tonight all over the pitch, magnificent.”
Of going up against France and the World Cup’s leading goalscorer Kylian Mbappe, Rice said: “These are the game we want to play in. England versus France quarter-final – it doesn’t get bigger than that. We’ve got six days now to prepare, we know the world will be watching and we want to progress.”