Declan Rice feels followers ought to share his pleasure over England’s set-piece mastery.
England beat Croatia 4-2 of their World Cup opener with Harry Kane scoring twice and Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford scoring in Dallas.
Kane’s second objective got here from a pinpoint nook from Rice, with the Arsenal man hitting an outswinger’s shot straight on the England captain’s head.
England’s non-penalty set-piece anticipated targets (xG) of 1.03 was tops of all groups all through Matchday 1, and Rice, who ranked fourth in Europe’s high 5 leagues (48 factors) for possibilities created from set-pieces in 2025-26, is worked up by the Three Lions’ dead-ball power.
“As time goes on, it appears like each time I put the ball on a set piece, whether or not it is a nook kick or a large free kick, I get an help or one thing harmful occurs,” Rice mentioned.
“It’s a great mentality to get by means of set-pieces and England followers will be enthusiastic about.”
Pushing ahead in the direction of sport day
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— England (@England) June 20, 2026
Rice defined how his set-piece abilities improved throughout his time at Arsenal.
“I by no means took nook kicks or set items, however (set piece coach) Nico (Jover) and the Arsenal supervisor (Mikel Arteta) noticed one thing in me that others did not see.
“They mentioned I might put the ball into the realm from a lifeless ball, which nobody else can do within the Arsenal group besides Bukayo (Saka). From that second I actually believed it and believed it.”
England confronted Ghana of their second Group L match and secured victory, securing their place on the high of the desk.
All through the opening match, solely Germany (12) had extra pictures on the right track than England (11 to Croatia).
England will likely be looking for a fourth win of their opening two World Cup matches after attaining the feat in 1982, 2006 and 2018.
