Rice on the Stones disaster

Declan Rice declared himself entirely “gutted” as England were beaten by Holland in the semi final of the European Nations League semi final last night (Thurs).

The Three Lions were the Declan had produced a fine display at the architects of their own defeat as John Stones produced a colossal error which allowed the Dutch to take the lead before Ross Barkley managed another for the third.

And the young Hammer was forced to swallow his disappointment sufficiently to help Stones in particular get over his personal disaster.

Declan rightly drew attention to the fact that many footballers make mistakes and whilst that’s true it’s so much harder to take when you are one step away from a final which could make history for an England team so short on  honours down the years.

There will hopefully be other days for a team which clearly has much to offer but the disappointment remains raw for now although Declan is right to show compassion towards a suffering team-mate

He told ITV Sport: “It’s gutting, it really is, it really is gutting. It’s tough. I’m lost for words. First half, we went out there and tried to play our stuff and we obviously had the lead, which I thought was deserved.

“Holland didn’t really create any chances at all in the first half and then, the second half, we just kind of sat back and we didn’t do what we did in the first half. We didn’t get up in their faces and make it difficult.

“They obviously got the equaliser from a corner, which is gutting because we work on them day in, day out, and obviously [we had] that VAR controversy again, which was really tight and might have changed the game a bit.

“Holland won and we cost ourselves the game with two mistakes and I’m gutted about it.”

Look, he is a great player, John Stones, and that’s his game, he takes risks. It doesn’t matter that he’s done that, we’re all behind him.

“We all know we make mistakes in football. The manager backs him, we all back him and it’s one of those things in football where, if you make a mistake, you’ve got to pick your head up and go again.

“I’ve made plenty in my time and it’s one of those where you’ve got to lift your head and go again but it was tough to take.”