England’s Kyle Walker confident of stopping Kylian Mbappe in the quarterfinals clash against France

England will be up against the tournament favourites and reigning champions France in the FIFA World cup quarterfinals. While all eyes will be on Kylian Mbappe who has been fantastic with his goal scoring prowess in Qatar, England are not ready to roll out the red carpet for him to score as highlighted by English defender Kyle Walker.

Walker is known to be the defender who will be given the responsibility to stop the French superstar. The Manchester City fullback is claimed as the antidote to stop the French juggernaut as he clarified that the game is between two teams and countries and not between two individual players.

“I think the game’s not England vs Mbappe, it’s England vs France,” Walker told a press conference on Wednesday. “We respect that he is a good player in good form, but I am not going to roll out a red carpet for him and tell him to go and score.”

England defeated Senegal in the round of 16 as they simply outclassed the African nationa and won the match 3-0 with Jordan Henderson opening the scoring and Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka also stepping up with a goal each. However France also had a similar match against Poland as Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud alongwith Antoine Griezmann were just too much for the Polish defenders. Hence Mbappe scored a brilliant brace and Giroud scored the other goal and became France’s highest goalscorer beating Thierry Henry. Late in the game France did concede a penalty as a ball bounced up and caught Dayot Upamecano’s arm. Robert Lewandowski dispatched the spotkick in the second attempt as the match ended 3-1.

So with both teams in similar kind of stature right now it will be a very enticing contest for the fans. Walker clearly mentions how he is here to win the World Cup and Mbappe will not coem in his way of lifting the trophy for his nation.

“I’m representing my country at the quarter-final in a World Cup, it’s do or die really. If we lose, we go home. He’s not going to stand in my way of winning a World Cup for my country,” Walker added.

The confidence in Walker’s voice not coming outof thin air as he has faced Mbappe four times in his career in the Champions League as Manchester City faced Paris Saint Germain. City won three out of the four fixtures and Mbappe only scored once in the recent match where again City defeated PSG 2-1.

Hence Walker feels that it is the exact same mindset in the national team aswell as he wants to prove a point. He also shares how they are thinking about the entire France team and not just one player. “When we’ve played in the four times against PSG for Man City in the Champions League, you’re not just thinking about Mbappe,” Walker added. “I think it is exactly the same on Saturday.”