Brazil national team fans celebrate (Reuters)
The biggest challenge for the England team in the 2022 World Cup will come this Saturday, when the Three Lions team will meet the reigning world champions, France, and in particular the hottest star in the world - Kylian Mbappe.
The Qatar 2022 top scorer, who has scored five goals so far, produced a superb performance in the round of 16 against Poland, and on Saturday he will be the problem for Luke Shaw and co.
"Of course after Poland there will be even more talk about him, we all know he is world class," said the Manchester United defender.
"But it would be naive on our part to focus only on him. France is the world champion, and we need to focus on the whole team. They have brilliant players all over the field, so we must not give all our attention only to Mbappe."
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Despite the amount of talent and firepower of the opposition, Shaw believes in England's abilities to qualify for the semi-finals.
"It probably won't be easy," he said, "France is the world champion, and for good reason. We'll have to be at our peak to win, that's clear. We'll have to raise another level, because France is really very good."
Bokayo Saka, one of England's World Cup stars, was asked if he felt like the Mbappe of the 2018 World Cup, and replied: "Thank you very much for the compliments, but no. There is only one Kylian Mbappe. He is one of the greatest in the world, we will have to try to stop him, but France have many more good players".
Saka was one of the tragic heroes of Euro 2020, after missing the decisive penalty in the final against Italy and receiving racist threats and slurs on social media.
According to him, "I have improved a lot since this tournament. If the moment comes, and they choose me, I would be very happy to kick a penalty again."
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As you can understand, both the players and the commentators around the England team are optimistic.
Former legendary star Alan Shearer estimates that the current team is better than the one in 2018, which was stopped in the semi-finals: "There is something different here. Four years ago England was not the most talented, but very organized. It showed character and fighting spirit. This time there is a better team, with higher abilities".
Gary Neville added: "It will be the game of their lives. Those moments don't happen very often in a career. I think we have the best right-back in the world, and he can handle Mbappe. Physically and in terms of speed and experience, I can't think of anyone better suited than Kyle Walker. It doesn't mean he will stop him for 90 minutes, because Mbappe is a sensational and spectacular player, but we have a chance."
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