Best England team for a long time—says Decline Rice

“This is the best England group for a very long time. That’s a fact. No-one can take that away from us.”

England’s thrilling 6-4 win against France secured the Three Lions a World Cup bronze medal – their best finish since they won the trophy in 1966 – and left Declan Rice adamant major tournament success is “close”.

Despite the criticism of Thomas Tuchel’s tactics since their painful semi-final collapse against Argentina, stand-in captain Rice was quick to praise England’s efforts at the tournament.

He added: “I think we can be proud as a group – we are just gutted we lost in that semi-final.

“We’re tired of saying we’re proud of coming in semi-finals and quarter-finals – we want to win with England ultimately. But to come third in this tournament is a real achievement.

“We’re so close, honestly. There’s been so much talk about this group over the last few years going out of tournaments. There’s been semi-final exits, quarter-finals, finals.

“I think we need to keep going. I do think it’s close. It’s a game of small margins. It’s football and the other night we lost on margins and in the boxes.”