West Ham United skipper Declan Rice believes there are positive signs to take from England’s enthralling comeback against Germany on Monday evening.
Rice played the full 90 minutes on Monday for a second consecutive match in this international window on a dramatic night where England recovered from 2-0 down to draw 3-3.
Thilo Kehrer was also in action for Germany and impressed at full-back as his side took a two-goal lead in north London.
But Luke Shaw and Mason Mount pulled England level with 15 minutes to be played, although England captain Harry Kane’s late penalty was cancelled out by a second finish from Kai Havertz.
Amongst the late drama, Rice was pleased by the resilience England showed to battle for a draw.
“We feel like we are building something," Rice said. “We're sticking with the formation that needs work. We’re working on that in training all the time.
“The last five games have been really tough, and I think when we went 2-0 down you could imagine what everyone was thinking. But for us as players, it's down to us to react. In the end, we were unlucky not to win games because the chances were there for us.
“I know it's got to be like that from the start of the game and shouldn't need a reaction from going 1-0 down but I feel like there are positive signs.”
Despite falling to relegation to the second tier of the UEFA Nations League after defeat in Italy, England showed character in their final match before the World Cup gets underway in Qatar later this year.
Looking to build on a semi-final and final finish at the last two major tournaments, England will start their World Cup campaign against Iran on 21 November, before further group-stage matches against Wales and USA.
And Rice believes that England can take confidence from the performance.
“Tonight is a massive positive step in terms of [how] we played against top-level opposition,” he added. “We should come away with a win.
“Once we got one back…it felt like a England-Germany fixture. We were running around, fighting for each other, winning second balls; we completely turned the game on its head.
“Us as players know it hasn’t been good enough of late and it’s down to us on the pitch to sort it out. We didn’t win but there were much more positive signs. We are walking away tonight with our heads held high.”
