English media reacts to ‘magnificent’ West Ham United man Declan Rice display v France
Despite their best efforts England and West Ham captain Declan Rice could not overcome reigning world champions France in the World Cup.
Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud scored the goals for Les Bleus as Harry Kane scored and missed penalties to see the score end 2-1 in Qatar.
Rice, though, was one of the Three Lions’ shining lights on the night having been tasked with the unenviable challenge of trying to keep Antoine Griezmann quiet as well as helping his full-backs out with Ousmane Dembele and the lightning-quick Kylian Mbappe.
The Mirror rated his performance at 8/10 and described him as: “Magnificent in England’s midfield engine room. Tackled, blocked, was superb.”
The Guardian agreed with that rating, also being impressed by his screening in front of the back four while the Manchester Evening News gave him a 7/10, still one of England’s best players.
Recognition
Despite being a regular for Southgate’s England for a number of years, there are a lot of people who don’t realise or appreciate how good he is at his job because the Three Lions rarely get put under so much pressure.
But up against the reigning world champions on the biggest stage of them all, the Irons captain shone through with flying colours and is finally getting the kind of recognition he deserves.
There really are very few players who can do the job Rice does as well as him and had Kalvin Phillips or Jordan Henderson been asked to do that, France could have walked all over England.
West Ham will now have a very difficult task to keep hold of him for much longer, as if it wasn’t already, but they could at least add a few million quid to the price tag after such an epic performance in defeat.
Rice will have to wait until Euro 2024 for his next chance at winning an international trophy but in the meantime, he has work to be done at the London Stadium.