Jordan Pickford believes his England team-mate Harry Maguire deserves more respect.
Maguire has become a figure of some ridicule after a downturn in form for Manchester United in the last year, with some questioning whether he should be in England's team at the World Cup in Qatar.
However, the 29-year-old centre-back was a key figure as the Three Lions won their opening Group B match 6-2 against Iran on Monday.
"I think [Maguire] needs to be respected a lot more, but part of the life of a footballer you are going to get criticised, everyone gets criticised in football," England goalkeeper Pickford told reporters.
"But Harry is mentally strong, takes it really well but yeah I think it’s a bit unfair, but his performances on the pitch show how good of a player he is and why he has so many caps for England and why he is captain of Manchester United."
Maguire assisted Bukayo Saka's first goal against Iran, won all four of his aerial duels, and felt he should have had a penalty when he appeared to be dragged down in the box with the game still at 0-0.
"He did unbelievable [against Iran], [he was] really good the other night," Pickford added. "For the first goal, the pass, then the assist for [Saka] and then maybe he could have got a penalty for us early on with the VAR decision that went against us.
"We have a great relationship, I think the majority of my caps now have been with Harry playing in front of me. We work really well together, and I think that our defensive record with Harry playing there is really good as well, and he is in a very good moment."
In a World Cup that has thrown up some surprising results in the opening days, England will have been pleased to get through their opener with a comfortable win, but Pickford insists they cannot look too far ahead of the next game, which comes against the United States on Friday.
"The situation is that we are here now, and the challenge is to go and win the World Cup," he said. "But there are a lot of challenges to get there and a lot of ups and downs really in each football match to get there, but our main aim is to win the World Cup, I think that is why everyone is here, to win the World Cup.
"We do have little conversations about it because it's what we want and it's our end goal, but we have to get to our end goal first."
Tedesco blames injuries after Belgium shocked by Israel
Domenico Tedesco said Belgium's lengthy injury list was to blame after they were stunned by Israel in their final Nations League group-stage game on Sunday.
Belgium were beaten 1-0 in a game played in neutral Budapest, having also lost to Italy by the same scoreline three days earlier.
Tedesco's team were already unable to finish in the top two of Group A1 and make next year's quarter-finals, and they must now face a Group B runner-up in a promotion/relegation playoff.
Belgium were hit by something of an injury crisis during this international break, which captain Kevin De Bruyne opted to skip as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Romelu Lukaku was then among five players to withdraw from their squad on Saturday, while both Leandro Trossard and Zeno Debast were substituted with injuries on Sunday.
"Some players played 90 minutes three days ago, and tonight they were somewhat compelled to play another 90 minutes," Tedesco said afterwards, as quoted by UEFA.com.
"Overall, the lessons learned were also part of the plan; it was about getting to know many players, as we will be there in March.
"I believe we had 21 injured players in the previous qualifying stage, and today we lost Leandro Trossard and Zeno Debast to injuries.
"We had a team that had never played together, never trained together. We started well, but ultimately, under really difficult circumstances, this is not the result we hoped for, and that's why we are very disappointed."
Despite attempting 649 passes in Sunday's game, their most in a single match in this edition of the Nations League, Belgium only managed 12 shots to Israel's 10.
Their total expected goals figure of 0.91 xG, meanwhile, was only marginally higher than the 0.77 created by Israel, who saw Yarden Shua come off the bench to net an 86th-minute winner.
Despite the loss, Tedesco has seen enough to believe his team will remain in the top tier of the competition when March's playoffs roll around.
"We will remain in League A, I am sure of it, because we know how to play in such matches," he said. "This will be important; that is our goal, as is qualifying for the World Cup."
Buttler delighted England have 'winning habit back' despite fifth-match washout
Jos Buttler is pleased to have England's "winning habit back" after securing a 3-1 T20I series win over West Indies, with the final match abandoned due to rain.
England had opted to bowl and the hosts reached 44-0 through Evin Lewis (29) and Shai Hope (14) after five overs before the downpour began in St Lucia.
Despite ground staff's attempts to clear the surface, the match was abandoned, with England claiming the win, having lost the ODI leg of the tour 2-1.
The tourists had won the first three T20Is, with the West Indies earning a consolation on Saturday in a high-scoring clash. Despite not finishing their final white-ball assignment of 2024, Buttler was delighted with the work his side have done this week.
"We're delighted with the series win. We've played some brilliant cricket," Buttler said.
"I've been happy with how we've started games, setting the tone with the powerplay wickets, as we've seen from Saqib being named player of the series. We've had lots of different guys chipping in at various times, so I'm really pleased for everybody.
"The fast-bowling department is looking good, and they all bring something different with their variety, so it's exciting for English cricket to have that.
"I enjoyed it [being captain without keeping], I felt like I had a bit more time, and it was nice to be out there running around and closer to the bowlers. I got everything I wanted to out of doing that.
"It's great to have the winning habit back."
West Indies struggled to carry over their ODI form into the T20I series but were looking to restore some pride in the final match, having impressed in the fourth. Captain Rovman Powell is now hoping they can find some consistency.
"It's been a tough series and credit Jos Buttler and his team, who came to these conditions and dominated. Having said that, we played good cricket in patches but not in long enough periods," he said.
"I think we always, as a batting group, use a template, but that didn't work in our first few games. As a team, we need to assess faster. It took us two or three games. The bowling group needs to sharpen up in a few areas.
"It's always a problem with the Caribbean cricketers, we always wander off when we are not playing for West Indies. It's a treadmill, and we don't spend time together. We have to keep our communication with players and ensure they are ready to go."
Italy win shows 'true face of the France team', says Rabiot
Adrien Rabiot believes Sunday's win over Italy showed "the true face of the France team" as they secured top spot in Nations League Group A2.
The midfielder headed home twice in their 3-1 victory, meeting excellent deliveries from Lucas Digne on both, with his second goal restoring the all-important two-goal cushion that ensured they finished above the Azzurri in the group.
This comes after France had failed to find a way past Israel in a frustrating 0-0 draw last time out.
However, Sunday's victory ensured France will be seeded in the quarter-finals draw as they seem to have put their disappointing Euro 2024 campaign, in which they won just twice as they struggled in front of goal, behind them.
Les Bleus also avenged the 3-1 defeat to Italy on home soil in the reverse fixture, something Rabiot said was playing on their minds while they prepared for their trip to San Siro.
"It's been a long time since we've played a match like this, that we haven't fought in this way all together, until the end," he told TF1.
"We also had the objective of winning with a two-goal difference, we did it. But frankly, the mutual aid that there was in this match, the combativeness, the team spirit, it's to be highlighted. Frankly, we enjoyed playing this match.
"It was a different context [Thursday]. Above all, there was a revenge to be taken compared to the previous match against Italy, who had come to win at home. It's a great evening. I hope we will continue to show this face. It's the true face of the France team."
Digne officially got two assists in the victory, but he also played a big role in France's other goal – his free-kick rattled the crossbar before bouncing in off the unfortunate Guglielmo Vicario.
In fact, France scored three goals from set-pieces in a match for the first time since 1991, when they netted three times from dead-ball situations against Albania.
"[The free-kick is] a technical gesture that is worked on in training. The more you do, the more automatic it becomes, and it pays off," Digne said.
"Offensively, it's not bad at all. As a defender, I would have preferred to finish with a clean sheet, but we can't have everything. We finished first, it's great.
"We had a revenge to take from the first leg, we wanted to show a completely different face. And in addition to our slightly worse match against Israel... We really wanted to show that this jersey is close to our hearts. The whole group was present. It was really a complete match."
France's Nations League quarter-finals will be played in March.
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