Declan Rice: We’ve adapted to the heat

Declan Rice marked the week he was made England men’s vice-captain with a goal as the Three Lions capped off their FIFA World Cup 2026 preparations with a 3-0 win against Costa Rica.

After Rice opened the scoring after 10 minutes, Anthony Gordon and Ollie Watkins added gloss to the scoreline in Orlando, in a match that was delayed by one hour due to weather conditions.

It was the last World Cup warm-up game for Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions, who face Croatia on 17 June in their World Cup opener.

“[We did] really well, in my opinion,” Rice said afterwards. “The manager was on to us before the game to ramp it up, the intensity with the ball, counter-pressing. 

“I thought the performance tonight was top from everyone, even the boys who came off the bench, it was an outstanding second-half performance. A really good last game before it all starts.

“I think we've adapted. You can see the heat is not really a problem now. The first week, ten days, have been adapting to the heat.

The Arsenal midfielder also spoke about playing alongside Gordon, who recently joined Barcelona from Newcastle United, and Manchester City star Nico O’Reilly on the left-hand side.

“Playing with him [Gordon] and Nico [O'Reilly], we've been speaking all week about how we are going to play, how we are going to rotate, be fluid, and you saw that in the first half. 

“I think you see as a group now we are building confidence, building fitness. Going into that first game now, we have got more training sessions, we are going to keep building.”

Gordon provided an excellent assist for Rice in the first half and spoke alongside his team-mate about the pressure of playing at the top level of international football.

“There's always pressure when you play for England because there are top players behind you. There's always pressure; if you can't deal with that you're at the wrong level. 

“I'm playing with two amazing players [down the left] who make me look much better.

Gordon scored from the penalty spot, taking advantage of Harry Kane’s substitution on the hour mark, who would normally step up from 12 yards.

“I was buzzing H [Harry Kane] was off! 

“I was looking around trying to find him and when I knew he was off, I wanted to take it. I love penalties, I love the pressure of them. Buzzing to see that go in.”