England will take on the World Champions, France, in a highly anticipated quarter-final clash at the Al-Bayt Stadium.
Both the Three Lions and the Les Bleu will be hoping to progress to the semi-finals with a win and the Tree Lions are determined to deliver later this evening.
Here are 5 major talking points for the Three Lions ahead of the fixture.
1) England have scored more goals in the tournament.
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England has scored a combined 12 goals in the competition. They have been scoring for fun with Bukayo Saka’s goal against Senegal their 12th in four matches.
Apart, from the blip that was the goalless draw against the United States, England has scored at least three goals in every match (6-2 vs Iran, 3-0 vs Wales and 3-0 vs Senegal).
It is also the joint-most goals they have scored at World Cup – tied with the 12 they also scored under Southgate in Russia four years ago.
2) Gary Southgate is yet to lose a knockout match in 90 minutes
Impressive statistics backing underrated Gary Southgate as he becomes the first manager in England’s history to win 10 games at major tournaments.
He is also yet to lose a knockout game in 90 minutes, with his exits in the previous two tournaments coming in extra time to Croatia in 2018 and on penalties at the Euro 2020 final to Italy.
3) Harry Kane is England’s most important player
Harry Kane overtook Gary Lineker as England’s top scorer in a major tournament when he scored a goal in their last match against Senegal.
Harry Kane is undoubtedly the most important player in the England squad, he might not have a lot of goals in the tournament but he has been one of the most experienced and hard-working players so far.
4) England has eight different scorers
The Three Lions have eight different players who have found the back of the net in their four games so far.
Saka and Rashford have scored three goals, while Bellingham, Foden, Grealish, Henderson, Kane and Sterling all have found the net once each.
Saturday’s opponents France have just three – though two of those Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud, have both netted at least three times with the PSG star topping the scoring charts on five.
France will wary of England’s extravagance in front of the goal.
5) World-class Jude Bellingham
England would have wished they had a Jude Bellingham all these years. The mercurial Borussia Dortmund player has hardly put a foot wrong in the tournament.
His performance against Senegal was out of this world as he put in a great shift bagging an assist. The English man is poised to face the reigning world champion.
