England boss Gareth Southgate hailed the performance of Chelsea transfer target Declan Rice in England’s 2-1 victory over Italy.

Southgate said: “Yeah, Declan had a top performance level in midfield. I thought he, Kalvin [Phillips] and Jude [Bellingham], and given the experience level of the other team, were excellent.

“We managed to put good pressure onto them. There were a lot of periods where that was a very good team performance and a lot of moments when the midfield had to do the basics of winning second balls and then you’re on the attack and it’s an ugly phase. But it was really important in the context of the game.”