Arsenal stars Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, and Noni Madueke have joined the England squad in Florida ahead of their final World Cup warm-up friendly against Costa Rica. The quartet were granted extended leave following Arsenal's Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest, which took place six days after the Premier League season concluded.
Arsenal's Mixed Emotions
The Gunners lost on penalties in agonising fashion, with Eze and Gabriel missing from 12 yards. However, the team had much to celebrate the following day at their trophy parade after winning the Premier League title. Now, Saka, Rice, Eze, and Madueke have shifted their focus to international duty with England.
England's World Cup Preparations
England kicked off their World Cup preparations with a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in Tampa on Saturday, with captain Harry Kane scoring the only goal. The team arrived in Florida on Monday and will face Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday in their final warm-up match before the tournament. England's World Cup campaign begins against Croatia in Dallas on June 17, a rematch of the 2018 semi-final.
Kane, who scored his 79th England goal, commented: "I think it's important always as a striker. You know what I'm like. I want to be on the scoresheet as much as possible. Obviously I knew I was only playing 45 minutes today, so to get it in stoppage-time of the first half was a nicer feeling than if it went 0-0. But, look, we're here for preparation, we're here for getting fitness, dealing with the heat, dealing with these type of pitches, so ultimately it's another day done and we look forward to another friendly game in a few days."
Tuchel's Assessment
Head coach Thomas Tuchel was satisfied with the win but preferred the second-half performance over the first. "I'm OK with it," Tuchel said. "I'm not super happy about it. I liked the second half more than the first half. I think we had more bite in the second half, were more aggressive on and off the ball, created a bit more. Some good half chances and some good penetrations into the box. We played more from our positions and that's why we played with more speed."
He added: "The first half we were out of positions and it was a bit too much freestyle. That slowed our game down and made it difficult for counter-press because we were not in the positions that we wanted to be when we started attacking, so that's basically the story of the match. To put it in context, a lot of our players played the last time together in November, so it's half a year ago. We have four training sessions together and we mixed the team up completely, so we never played before in these combinations and formation to give everyone 45 minutes. Then you have the conditions, the pitch, it can look like this."
England now face Costa Rica on Wednesday in their final World Cup warm-up friendly.
