England ‘silenced’ their critics ahead of the tournament with ‘flawless’ performances en route to the World Cup quarter-finals, says Declan Rice.
On the Gareth Southgate side comfortably beat Senegal 3-0 Sunday to set up a quarter-final against the reigning world champions France.
England have won three and drawn one of their four matches in Qatar.
“I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances,” said West Ham midfielder Rice, 23.
“If you look at other teams, like the Netherlands and Argentina, they comfortably win their games and they’re called ‘masterclasses’.
“With us it’s always factored in. Negative things always come that way. If you look at the last two games it’s been flawless. I think countries should start fearing us now because we’re a great team.”
England have scored 12 goals in four games in Qatar – the country’s most goals at a major tournament, tied with their 12 goals at the 2018 World Cup.
They have also kept a clean sheet in their last three World Cup games – their best clean streak in the competition since 1982.
“As the tournament approached, there was a lot of talk about us not scoring enough goals. That’s another topic we kept quiet about,” Rice added.
“There’s been a lot of scrutiny around defending and conceding goals, but it’s been solid. We’ll keep building and pushing.”
Faced with the prospect of facing Paris St-Germain and French superstar Kylian Mbappe in the quarter-finals on Saturday (kick-off 19:00 GMT), Rice said England had nothing to fear.
“These are the games we want to play. They only happen once. England v France, quarter-finals – it doesn’t get any bigger than that,” he added.
“I’m sure the world will be watching. We really want to progress. There’s no point in buzzing [about victory over Senegal] if we can’t go on and beat France.”
Tottenham defender Eric Dier added: “When you get to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, everyone is going to be very good. That’s to be expected.
“No one will be afraid of anyone. It’s a great team with very great players – but so are we.”
