Maguire will now return to Manchester United and fight for his place after losing his status as an automatic starter. Playing under Southgate in Qatar has seen him return to form ahead of the second half of the season.
“I’ve played every game and I’m proud of my mentality to prove myself again,” Maguire said. “I look at the team and every time I put on this shirt, I want the team to do well. I would have preferred to play a bad game [against France] and past.”
The United captain believes England lost out to the eventual champions, backing France to retain their title.
“I feel that they will go on to lift the cup. And if we are completely honest, we were much better than them in many areas. But they are world champions for a reason. And the reason is that they are clinical, they are ruthless, they have experience”, he to say.
“Now we belong on this stage”
“But one thing I would say about this group of guys that proved tonight is that we belong on this stage now. We belong playing these big games and playing in these big tournament playoff games and we showed that tonight, even though We lost the game.”
Rice, meanwhile, says there is a “negativity” in England that won’t go away until a big tournament is won. “I think sometimes the negativity around us will go away once we win something again,” he said. “There’s always going to be that pressure on us, but I feel like it’s starting to rub off in that way that we’re getting back to a level where people believe in us and the country supports us.
“A few years ago it wasn’t like that, so we can be very proud of ourselves as a group. But we have to go again because ultimately international football is about what you win, we haven’t won for years so that’s what we want to try to do.”