DECLAN RICE has issued an Auld Enemy rallying call ahead of one of the biggest games of his career as England prepare to host Scotland at Wembley.
The Three Lions got their Group D campaign off to an encouraging start on Sunday afternoon with a comfortable and deserved 1-0 win over Croatia.
Raheem Sterling netted the only goal of the game to clinch the points for Gareth Southgate’s side and they now have top spot in the section firmly in their sights ahead of matchday two.
The meeting with Scotland on Friday evening is one of the most eagerly-anticipated fixtures of the first stage of the competition this summer.
And West Ham star Rice is fully aware of the significance of the occasion and the opportunity that lies ahead for England as they bid for a second group victory.
Rice said: “We’re buzzing. Steve Holland said after the game that we can enjoy the tonight but [on Monday] we have to crack on.
“When you look back on your career at the end, the game on Friday will probably go down as one of the top three you will ever play.
“We know the history with Scotland. We know the type of game it will be.
"We want to focus on the Scotland game and repeat the same performance.
“They’ve got some top players who play in the Premier League. Che Adams, McGinn and Scott in the middle are two warriors and Andy Robertson and 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.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here