Declan Rice shares what Kalvin Phillips told him before West Ham ace scored for England
Kalvin Phillips predicted that Declan Rice would score for England in Hungary on Thursday, the West Ham star has revealed.
Rice, 22, impressed alongside Leeds United’s Phillips at the European Championships in the summer and their partnership was also a major driving factor in England’s 4-0 hammering of Hungary in Budapest this week.
All four goals were scored in the second half with Rice rounding off the rout with a shot from outside of the goal in the 87th minute.
Rice took to his personal Instagram account after the match to share an image of him and Phillips celebrating, adding the caption: “Kalvin Phillips, you did say I’d score before the game.”
Magnificent
Whisper it quietly but Phillips and Rice is becoming the midfield partnership that England dreamt of during the days of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes.
The Leeds and West Ham stars compliment each other so well with one both of them showing strong defensive attributes as well as having different ways of being able to get the ball up the pitch.
Phillips is more of a passer of the ball, eyeing out long-range passes to his attacking team-mates and spreading the play across the pitch.
As for Rice, we all know how he loves a good run out of the back while his short-range passing is also one of his major strengths, as well as his aerial ability.
England got to a major final of an international tournament for the first time since 1966 with this pair in the midfield.
We’re still hurt about how that game ended but both Rice and Phillips were instrumental in our success in the summer.
Let’s hope these two can keep impressing for a long time and isn’t it refreshing to see two players from outside of the Premier League’s ‘big six’ being England’s best players?
In other West Ham news, the club was in deadline day talks to sign this title-winning forward from Europe.
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