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Published 07 June 2024 4 min read
England Men's Senior Team

Declan Rice wants lessons learnt from Iceland defeat

Written by:

Adam Drury

The midfielder takes the positives but admits there is room for improvement after Wembley loss

Read the match report

Declan Rice admits he is hurting but says England must learn quickly after losing 1-0 to Iceland in their final EURO 2024 warm-up match at Wembley.

The hosts scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute through Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson.

The Three Lions dominated possession from then on but were unable to make it count against stubborn visitors.

Rice said: "Inside I'm hurting, there's work to be done.

"When you have that much of the ball, have a couple of clear-cut chances, and get beat 1-0 at home just before the EUROs it isn't ideal. But I'm going to take the positives. There were a lot of promising performances, we played with a good tempo, always tried to play forward. We have to be a little bit more savvy.

"It's not ideal we lost but there are good learning curves we can build on as a team. There's no doubt our quality on the ball against teams that sit in like that, it's about being more mentally switched on.

"We were a bit exposed with our press and not as compact as we usually are.

"Every game is another chance to get better and we're going to be more than ready for Serbia."

Winger Anthony Gordon echoed Rice's thoughts and believes there is plenty that England can take from Friday's defeat.

He said: "It didn't go the way we wanted but it's a bigger picture. It's great practice for us, that's how teams are probably going to play against us so the more we play against teams like that, and learn how to break them down, the better for us going into the tournament.

"We lacked quality in the final third. We did well controlling the game and pinning them back but a bit of lack of quality in the final third let us down."

Anthony Gordon during England v Iceland at Wembley

And Gordon can't wait to travel to Germany and get stuck into his first senior tournament.

He added: " I don't think it will hit me until I am actually on the plane. That's all you hear, 'Are you on the plane?'

"The plane is actually the exciting bit for me now. I am expecting some big mad plane! We have got a day off to enjoy some family time and then I can't wait."