France seem like an imposing opponent for England in the World Cup quarter-finals but Jordan Pickford thinks Les Bleus will be worrying the same about the ‘scary’ Three Lions
Jordan Pickford reckons France should be running scared of England ahead of their crunch World Cup showdown.
The Three Lions take on the world champions in a seismic quarter-final clash in Doha on Saturday. Didier Deschamps’ men are favourites to triumph and book a place in the last four.
Pickford admits the French will be tough opponents and that Gareth Southgate’s men need to find a way to stop red-hot striker Kylian Mbappe.
But the goalkeeper reckons England have some fearsome attacking weapons of their own that will have France worried.
Pickford, who is set to win his 50th cap, said: “The front lads are scary up top. They are ruthless as well and it gives us a chance. France are the reigning champions. They’ve got Mbappe and other great players, so they’re going to be tough opponents.
“It’s tournament football and you might not get another chance to beat France, so to beat them in the quarters would be massive for this team.
“They’ve got to be worried about us as well. Our threat in attack and we’ve got players who come off the bench as well. We’ve got Harry Kane, Rashy (Marcus Rashford) and the others. I see them every day in training and the level is really high.”
England’s forwards were in smashing form as they put three past Senegal on Sunday night. Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane both netted before the break after lung-busting runs from Jude Bellingham, while Bukayo Saka scored his third of the tournament to put the game out of reach.
Meanwhile, France are coming off of a similarly dominant showing against Poland which ended 3-1. Mbappe set up Olivier Giroud for his record-breaking goal before putting two ferocious long-rangers past Wojciech Szczesny.