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Declan Rice: England are ready to play the biggest game of their lives against Scotland at Euro 2020

 (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

England’s players have been told to prepare for one of the biggest games of their lives when they face Scotland on Friday.

Gareth Southgate’s side put themselves on course for the knockout stages of the Euros with a 1-0 win against Croatia at Wembley yesterday.

Raheem Sterling’s second-half strike secured a hugely encouraging victory — the first the Three Lions have ever managed in the opening game of a European Championship.

On Friday, they face the Scots at the national stadium in a clash that will be pumped with emotion — bringing back memories of Paul Gascoigne and 1996.

And England’s players have been told to quickly start focusing on that game.

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Declan Rice said yesterday: “Steve Holland [assistant manager] said after the game we can enjoy the night, but tomorrow we have to crack on.

“The game on Friday will probably go down in our careers as one of the most memorable games you will ever play. We know the history with Scotland.

“We know the type of game it will be. After tonight, we will travel back [to St George’s Park] and have a laugh among the lads and enjoy it. Then we want to focus on the Scotland game and repeat the same performance.”

He added: “This is the big challenge. We are delighted with the win. The players are happy. It is a positive step in terms of qualification, but one of the hardest things in sport is to come back to that point you were before the kick-off for the next game.

“You can get a bit of a glow of the win, a bit soft and a bit puddingy when you poke the finger in the belly. We’ve got to make sure that we are ready for what is going to be an incredible game against Scotland and a huge challenge.

“We have to find that. We should enjoy the win because you have to enjoy them, especially in tournaments, but focus now — our first objective is qualification, we haven’t done that yet and we’ve got a very important game for us and our fans on Friday night.”

Yesterday’s win lifted spirits, with the Wembley crowd chanting “It’s coming home” throughout the match.

Southgate has told his players they have the opportunity to create history at this championship.

He said: “The pressure is what we decide it to be. We’ve talked about this as a group. We have opportunities to be the first to do things.

“I didn’t realise it was the first win in an opening game, so that’s something they’ve managed to achieve that no other team has done.

“We are just focused on what this team is about, where do we want to go? How do we work as a group? Build on the performances, build on the training that they’ve all put in over the last two weeks and it’s for everybody else to get excited and throw their beer around and do whatever else they want.

“That is brilliant to give that joy to people. But for us we are onto the next and preparing for a really tough game on Friday.”

England won the midfield battle against Croatia’s brilliant playmakers, led by Luka Modric, and Rice says it will be a different challenge against Scotland.

“They’ve got some top players who play in the Premier League,” said the West Ham star. “Che Adams, [John] McGinn and Scott [McTominay] in the middle are two warriors and Andy Robertson and [Kieran] Tierney at the back are great leaders and players.

“We are not going into it and say it is going to be easy because that will be wrong. They are going to come and be physical and we need to match that and do more. We need to be ready and we will be ready.”

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