England’s thrilling 6-4 win against France secured the Three Lions a World Cup bronze medal – their best finish since they won the trophy in 1966 – and left Declan Rice adamant major tournament success is “close”.

Despite the criticism of Thomas Tuchel’s tactics since their painful semi-final collapse against Argentina, stand-in captain Rice was quick to praise England’s efforts at the tournament.

“This is the best England group for a very long time. That’s a fact. No-one can take that away from us,” Rice said.

“I think we can be proud as a group – we are just gutted we lost in that semi-final.

“We’re tired of saying we’re proud of coming in semi-finals and quarter-finals – we want to win with England ultimately. But to come third in this tournament is a real achievement.

“We’re so close, honestly. There’s been so much talk about this group over the last few years going out of tournaments. There’s been semi-final exits, quarter-finals, finals.”

The Three Lions squad under Tuchel has faced immense media scrutiny, particularly regarding their set-up against Argentina under pressure.

Rice’s long-range effort in the third minute opened the scoring against France before Ezri Konsa doubled the Three Lions’ lead with a header 15 minutes later and Bukayo Saka struck twice before half-time.

Kylian Mbappe slotted in twice to reach 10 goals at the 2026 edition – moving two goals clear of Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the leading marksman in the top scorer standings – either side of the Bleus captain setting up Bradley Barcola to fire in.

Those goals meant the 2018 champions had reduced the deficit to 4-3 by the 66th minute of a breathless and frequently end-to-end encounter, but Michael Olise missed a presentable opportunity before Saka completed his treble with a penalty.

Ousmane Dembele curled in his sixth goal of the finals from inside the box in the 96th minute, only for Jude Bellingham to dance through a crowd of players and smash in his seventh of the tournament to ensure England, who rested top scorer Harry Kane, took bronze.

Rice remains fully convinced that the narrow gap between England and the ultimate prize will soon be bridged.

“I think we need to keep going. I do think it’s close. It’s a game of small margins. It’s football and the other night we lost on margins and in the boxes.”