Joe Hart delivers Declan Rice verdict as West Ham United ace suffers England heartbreak
England may have been knocked out of the World Cup but West Ham United captain Declan Rice had plenty of admirers for his display.
France kept their hopes of back-to-back World Cup triumphs alive with a 2-1 win against the Three Lions courtesy of goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud.
Harry Kane scored one of his two penalties on the night but crucially struck the second over the bar to prevent the game from going to extra time.
Rice posted on Instagram on Sunday (11 December) of his devastation at not being able to beat Didier Deschamps’ side in Qatar and seeing their World Cup run come to an end.
A wave of support from the footballing world followed in the comments section of his post with former England goalkeeper and Celtic star Joe Hart saying: “Keep growing mate, you are awesome.”
Bounce back
The devastation of losing in the World Cup is surely immeasurable for Rice and his England teammates but they can’t spend too long wallowing in their defeat.
They all have club sides waiting to get their star men back and ready to play when the Premier League returns on Boxing Day and they can’t afford to still have their minds on Qatar and what could have been.
David Moyes will have been in touch with his skipper already and reminded him of the job he has to do with West Ham United with European and domestic campaigns on the horizon.
Internationally, this is not the end of the world for any of those England players who should have the chance to redeem themselves at Euro 2024 where they will hope to end the long wait for a men’s tournament win.
Now is the time to pick themselves up off the canvas and get back to what they do best and come the summer of 2024, the Three Lions will be among the favourites to lift the trophy at long last.