Former West Ham and England defender Rio Ferdinand heaped praise on Declan Rice after England’s 1-0 win against Croatia in their opening Euro 2020 game on Sunday.
Rice played all 90 minutes alongside Kalvin Phillips at the base of the midfielder for Gareth Southgate’s side – making life difficult for Mateo Kovacic, Luca Modric and co.
It was the 22-year-old’s partner who ventured forward to provide the assist for the only goal of the game as Leeds United star Phillips put Raheem Sterling in on goal to fire home.
However, ex-Iron of 142 appearances Ferdinand reserved special acclaim for Rice to BBC Sport.
I was very impressed with the patience of this team from back to front. I thought Declan Rice in front of the back four was superb in his positions, cutting out crosses, getting in great positions to cut the lines into the strikers. There will be stiffer tests but they did what they had to do today.
During the performance, Rice earned a 6.6 rating whilst completing three out of five duels and achieved an 88 per cent passing accuracy (Sofascore).
England will now face arch-rivals Scotland on Friday in the second group game at Wembley once again.
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Rice’s assured display will have come as no surprise to the Hammers faithful – having watched the ace perform to similar levels all season long.
Albeit perhaps not the all-encompassing, swashbuckling performance the West Ham man is capable of, it was the performance of a maturing player capable of playing in numerous styles.
