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England are set to face Senegal in their FIFA World Cup round-of-16 clash, and their fans are excited about Phil Foden's inclusion in the starting lineup. Having begun with Foden in the bench in the first two group games, the manager opted to start him in their final first-round clash against Wales.
The Manchester City star performed admirably, providing an impressive display over the Welsh and putting his name on the scoresheet. Southgate has picked him once more, with the versatile midfielder set to provide attacking verve for England against their African opponents.
His inclusion in the game has pleased fans no end, and they have taken to Twitter to express their delight about Foden with tweets like this:
England prepare to face Senegal in their FIFA World Cup round-of-16 clash
The Three Lions will face the Teranga Lions in what is expected to be an exciting clash on 4 November. While England are widely touted as favorites to secure a place in the next round, the manager has warned his team against complacency.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live (via BBC), Southgate noted that being favorites meant little:
"We will be considered favourites. But that doesn't really mean anything in a one-off game. It doesn't mean there isn't any pressure for Senegal because every international team has great pressure in their own nation and externally as well."
This will be the second time Senegal have reached the FIFA World Cup knockout stages, but their English counterparts have enjoyed better runs in the competition. Southgate's men got to the semi-finals in the 2018 edition where they lost to Croatia in extra time.
Southgate hailed his team's quality, noting that they had improved all around, while admonishing them to stay focused on the task at hand:
"We are two tournaments on from when we played Colombia at this stage in Moscow. I think our level of experience is better, our level of ambition is different. When we qualified from our group stage in Russia, we were probably celebrating quite a bit. This time was a great evening for our fans and we enjoyed the win, but we were already thinking of the next game. We know the focus has to be on this one game, nothing else."
