Rice: Spain will bring out England’s best

Declan Rice believes Sunday’s UEFA Nations League clash against world champions Spain will bring out the best in England.

The Three Lions face Luis de la Fuente’s side in their final group game at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.

Both sides have already qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition, but England will clinch top spot in Group A3 if they can take all three points.

Spain got the better of Thomas Tuchel's men in September, winning 3-2 at Wembley, but Rice, who missed that contest, is confident the Three Lions will rise to the challenge after a number of good performances.

“I think the batch of games last month were incredible,” he said at Saturday’s pre-match press conference.

“Some really, really good performances. The other night [against Croatia] was an ok performance.

“We know we've got more gears to go through and tomorrow night, I think it’s going to bring out the best in us.

“As players, these are the games you want to play and you want to play against the best teams, the best players.

"We have players that thrive in those occasions, so for sure, I think tomorrow night's a game that we need to perform and we need to play well in, and it will show where we are as a group.”

England come into the match on a run of four consecutive wins, scoring 14 goals in the process.

The Three Lions demonstrated plenty of attacking intent in what was an enthralling encounter against Spain at Wembley, with the likes of Harry Kane, Anthony Gordon, Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers all impressing across the last two international windows.

Rice says Tuchel encourages his team to play with freedom and is hopeful England’s in-form forward line can show how good they are in Madrid on Sunday.

“Last month was really good in terms of scoring goals, that attacking threat,’ he added.

“That's been the message from the manager. With the players that we have and the quality that we have in the front line, we need to attack teams full throttle and go for them.

“We've been working on that a lot in training, giving players the freedom to go out there and perform like they do for their clubs. That's what we're looking to do tomorrow night.

“I feel like when you have Harry Kane, Anthony Gordon, Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers, who are all in such good form, you just need one night for it to take off and, I feel like tomorrow night could be that night.”