Man Utd star reveals what Gareth Southgate told England players at half time v Wales

Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has revealed England responded to a half-time message from manager Gareth Southgate in their World Cup win against Wales.

The Red Devils forward was in eye-catching form as he helped his side recover from a goalless first-half to fire them in front with a stunning free-kick five minutes after the restart. Manchester City star Phil Foden doubled the tally just a minute later before Rashford ended the contest when he produced a fine individual goal midway through the half.

The United star was unable to follow in the footsteps of Sir Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker by scoring a World Cup Finals hat-trick for England when was replaced by Jack Grealish with just under quarter of an hour remaining - but he had already played a significant role in helping the Three Lions set up a first knockout round meeting with Senegal on Sunday evening.

After the game, Rashford told BBC Sport: “It was just about us killing the game off, and taking the chances in the game. I fancied one in the first-half but the one in the second-half was in a better position. From there, it’s just about being calm and trying to execute what you practice in training.

“It’s obviously a great feeling. We were a little bit disappointed as a team against the USA. I thought we could have played a bit better and the only way to bounce back from that was to have a good performance in your next game. I thought we did that. The first-half, we defended brilliantly, we didn’t give them anything. They had one shot.

“At half-time the manager said we’d played really well but the one thing we can work better on is shots on goal. We only had two or three in the first-half. We wanted to have more, we wanted to work the keeper and keep getting in dangerous positions.”

The brace takes Rashford alongside France star Kylian Mbappe, Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo and Ecuador’s Enner Valencia as the top scorer at the tournament. That represents a dramatic turnaround in his fortunes after he was left out of England squads following their Euro 2020 Final defeat against Italy.

Reflecting on what his double strike and England’s progress means to him, Rashford said: “Moments like this, this is what you play football for, the biggest moments, the best moments. I am really happy today. I am really happy that we are going through to the next round of the tournament and hopefully we can build on this performance. I have massive ambition with this team and I think we can play even better than what we have shown tonight.”