France star laughs off Kyle Walker's claims about Kylian Mbappe ahead of FIFA World Cup QF - "19 teams still waiting for the solution"
England will take on Kylian Mbappe's France in a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash on Saturday, December 10, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Both teams have been on song in this tournament and boast good squads ahead of their showdown.
One of the biggest challenges that lies ahead for England will be to stop French forward Kylian Mbappe. The Paris-Saint Germain (PSG) forward has netted five times in four games and has seemingly been the best player in the tournament so far.
England's pacey fullback Kyle Walker is likely to be tasked with the responsibility of containing Mbappe on France's left flank. Speaking about the challenge of facing Mbappe, Walker said at the pre-match press conference:
"[He's a] fantastic player in great form...one of the best, if not the best in the world at the minute. I understand what I need to do and that's to stop him. Probably easier said than done but I don't underestimate myself...I'm not going to roll out the red carpet for him and tell him to score."
Walker's response was met with a dismissive reaction from French midfielder Youssouf Fofana.
"It's to [Kyle Walker's] credit if he knows how to stop Kylian, in the meantime, there are 19 teams still waiting for the solution in Ligue 1," Fofana laughed. "And others in the Champions League! We all trust him."
Declan Rice ready for France and Kylian Mbappe
England midfielder Declan Rice, too, is ready for the challenge of facing France in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Speaking to The Athletic after England's 3-0 win over Senegal, he said:
"I’ve said it all along. I don’t think we’ve been getting the credit we’ve been deserving. When you look at other nations like Holland and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and they get called masterclasses. With us, it always gets picked off."
He remarked that England are at the moment playing "faultless" football and that other teams should start to "fear" them now:
"If you look at the last couple of games, it’s been faultless. Countries should be starting to fear us now. I think against the big teams there has always been talk about us using the ball. This tournament we’ve controlled every game. We’ve moved the ball really well."
He added:
"Opening stages have been shaky when teams are trying to stop us playing, but after the goal it opens up and you really start to see us play. Against France, we’ve seen some weaknesses in them we can try to exploit and it’ll be a great game."