Man City and England star Kalvin Phillips reveals the Gareth Southgate message that sparked 3-0 Wales win

Manchester City star Kalvin Phillips enjoyed his first minutes at the World Cup after coming on as a substitute for Declan Rice in the 3-0 win over Wales at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium.

The win powered England to the round of 16 as group winners where they will now take on Senegal who beat Ecuador to progress from their group. England were really uninspiring against the USA and needed to send out a statement with their performance against Wales, as the knives were being sharpened for Gareth Southgate.

But Philips says the manager was very calm even when the game was still tied and just asked them to keep going. He told a reporter after the win at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium : “The manager just said keep playing how they are playing and obviously switched Marcus (Rashford) and Phil (Foden) and I think that that made a good difference and the goals that were scored.

“I think we knew we would break them down at some point because we had so much possession. I thought the first half we played as well as the second, just the difference were the goals.”

The game against Senegal will be the first time England have faced the West African country, who will throw different challenges to Southgate’s men. The Three Lions thrashed the Ivory Coast 3-0 the last time they played an African team and will hope they can repeat similar energy levels when they take on Aliou Cisse’s side this weekend.

Philips indicated the side were fired up for their latest challenge, and said: “We are looking forward to playing that game, Senegal are a tough team and they have done well to qualify and they have some of the best players in the world so we are looking forward to playing that game.”

The Three Lions will hold a closed door recovery session and then the players will have the second half of the day off, before they return tomorrow to their turn their focus on Senegal.