Declan Rice is ready for his and what he believes will be the biggest game of his international career so far – along with the rest of the England squad.
Those of us who loved the home international tournament from years ago will get a taste of it again on Friday when the Three Lions meet the Scots at Wembley on Friday evening.
With the Southgate squad in second place in Group D following the Czech Republic’s 2-0 win over them earlier today England will be looking for a win to take them back to the top of the group.
And Declan knows that’s not going to be easy against a Scottish side which is probably the best we have seen for a few years.
Delighted with the sin over Croatia, he and the squad now have to forget that and move onto looking after business at the national stadium when the match kicks off at 8pm.
Quoted in the Evening Standard he declared: ““Steve Holland [assistant manager] said after the game we can enjoy the night, but tomorrow we have to crack on.
“The game on Friday will probably go down in our careers as one of the most memorable games you will ever play. We know the history with Scotland.
“We know the type of game it will be. After tonight, we will travel back [to St George’s Park] and have a laugh among the lads and enjoy it. Then we want to focus on the Scotland game and repeat the same performance.”
“You can get a bit of a glow of the win, a bit soft and a bit puddingy when you poke the finger in the belly. We’ve got to make sure that we are ready for what is going to be an incredible game against Scotland and a huge challenge.
“We have to find that. We should enjoy the win because you have to enjoy them, especially in tournaments, but focus now — our first objective is qualification, we haven’t done that yet and we’ve got a very important game for us and our fans on Friday night.”
“They’ve got some top players who play in the Premier League,” said the West Ham star. “Che Adams, [John] McGinn and Scott [McTominay] in the middle are two warriors and Andy Robertson and [Kieran] Tierney at the back are great leaders and players.
“We are not going into it and say it is going to be easy because that will be wrong. They are going to come and be physical and we need to match that and do more. We need to be ready and we will be ready.”
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