Guéhi backs 'fantastic' Eze to shine at World Cup

Marc Guéhi expects Eberechi Eze to play a major role for England at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after seeing him successfully overcome adversity throughout his career.

The Arsenal midfielder missed a penalty in the Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last month, having helped the Gunners win their first Premier League trophy in 22 years during his debut season.

And Guéhi, who played alongside Eze for four years at Crystal Palace, is confident his former club teammate will put that disappointment behind him on the international stage this summer.

Speaking during a press conference alongside Thomas Tuchel in Florida on Tuesday, the Manchester City defender said: “Ebz is a fantastic player. I’ve seen it from day one, he’s someone that has overcome so many adversities.

“To be here is a fantastic achievement for himself, but I’ve seen his development at Palace. He’s a true gent, someone you love to be around and of course a fantastic player.”

The World Cup will be Eze’s second taste of a major tournament with the Three Lions after he was selected for Uefa EURO 2024, where he made three substitute appearances as England finished as runners-up.

The Arsenal playmaker and the rest of England’s Gunners contingent - Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke - joined up with the rest of the squad in Florida over the weekend, having been delayed due to the Champions League final and Premier League trophy parade.

Asked what he said to Eze on his arrival into camp, Guéhi added: “I just congratulated him on the Premier League.

“I didn’t really watch the Champions League final, I obviously heard about it but it’s important to remind everyone of the good things that he’s done. It’s obviously nice for Arsenal fans to do that (support him).”

Rice, meanwhile, marked the week he was made England men’s vice-captain with a goal as the Three Lions capped off their World Cup preparations with a 3-0 win against Costa Rica.

After Rice opened the scoring after 10 minutes, Anthony Gordon and Ollie Watkins added gloss to the scoreline in Orlando, in a match that was delayed by one hour due to weather conditions.

It was the last World Cup warm-up game for Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions, who face Croatia on 17 June in their World Cup opener.

“(We did) really well, in my opinion,” Rice said afterwards. “The manager was on to us before the game to ramp it up, the intensity with the ball, counter-pressing.

“I thought the performance tonight was top from everyone, even the boys who came off the bench, it was an outstanding second-half performance. A really good last game before it all starts.

“I think we've adapted. You can see the heat is not really a problem now. The first week, 10 days, have been adapting to the heat.

The Arsenal midfielder also spoke about playing alongside Gordon, who recently joined Barcelona from Newcastle United and Manchester City star Nico O’Reilly on the left-hand side.

“Playing with him (Gordon) and Nico, we've been speaking all week about how we are going to play, how we are going to rotate, be fluid, and you saw that in the first half.

“I think you see as a group now we are building confidence, building fitness. Going into that first game now, we have got more training sessions, we are going to keep building.”

Gordon provided an excellent assist for Rice in the first half and spoke alongside his teammate about the pressure of playing at the top level of international football.

“There's always pressure when you play for England because there are top players behind you. There's always pressure; if you can't deal with that you're at the wrong level.

“I'm playing with two amazing players (down the left) who make me look much better.

Gordon scored from the penalty spot, taking advantage of Harry Kane’s substitution on the hour mark, who would normally step up from 12 yards.

“I was buzzing H (Harry Kane) was off!

“I was looking around trying to find him and when I knew he was off, I wanted to take it. I love penalties, I love the pressure of them. Buzzing to see that go in.”

Thomas Tuchel was pleased with what he saw from his team.

“We did very well,” admitted Tuchel after the game.

“We deserved to win, we should've had more goals, we could’ve easily scored more and we created a lot.

“The attitude, the energy and the intensity was of a very high level. Everyone did well. It's not about individual players, today was a very good team performance.

“We wanted to have this push to the next level and we clearly got it. Everyone in the stadium could feel it and the reaction of the fans was amazing. We did a lot for it, we worked hard, our counter-pressing was good, the defending, attitude, togetherness - everything was on a very high level."

It’s now just one week to go before England’s World Cup opener against Croatia in Dallas and the England squad have had 10 days of training in Florida since arriving in the USA at the start of June.

And Tuchel believes his squad are in a strong position going into the tournament.

“Tonight just makes my mind very calm, because we are on absolutely the right way,” he said.

“I’m very proud of what I saw today, the team spirit and the behaviour. The guys who came in were super influential, the guys who came out were pushing from behind. It was exactly what we wanted.

“We saw very good substitutes, who were of course disappointed to not start, but they came in and played with the same intensity and the same quality against a more tired opposition, so well done to everyone.”

The head coach remained tight-lipped when asked about whether he knows who will be on course to start in that first game with Croatia but with a training game against a local team from Miami behind closed doors on Thursday to come before the squad head to their World Cup base in Kansas, there’s plenty of time to decide.

“I will find now an XI for tomorrow's game and then I have six days to think,” he revealed.

“We’ll do a match tomorrow, another friendly match to get some minutes into the legs of the players who didn't play so much today.

“Then the players get one and a half days off, to switch off physically but also mentally and then we change location, go to Kansas and prepare for Croatia.

“I think what we saw today was exactly what we wished for, exactly what we wanted, so I am very calm. I am very proud of the way we won today and the way we played. Next stop Kansas!”