Thierry Henry sends shivers down England with Mexico World Cup warning | OneFootball

France legend Thierry Henry has warned England that they will struggle to stage another World Cup comeback if they go behind against Mexico in the last 16.

The Three Lions were left stunned early in their round-of-32 clash with DR Congo after Brian Cipenga’s scored in the seventh minute, only for Thomas Tuchel’s men to rally late on thanks to a brace from talisman skipper Harry Kane.

The result sealed a date with co-hosts Mexico for England at the Azteca Stadium at 1am BST on Monday morning.

Mexico has won all four of their games at the World Cup against South Africa, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Ecuador and are also yet to concede a goal.

England travelling to Mexico will also see the co-hosts have a significant advantage, given the game will be 7,200ft above sea level and Tuchel’s side will have no real time to adjust to the altitude.

And Henry, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, predicts England will struggle if they concede first against Mexico.

“You don’t want to go there too soon right but you have to address the situation,” Henry told Fox Sports.

“If they start the same way they started today at the Azteca, dealing with the altitude, we don’t know how the weather is going to be, it’s one thing to play in a dome and to play outside.

“And so the Mexico we saw yesterday and how they played [against Ecuador], I don’t know if you’re going to come back against a team that still hasn’t conceded a goal.

“We all know this guy, Sir Harry [Kane], can be in a situation where he can open up any team at any moment, but you can’t start like that and you’re not always going to have that cooling break that can give you a little chance, because Ecuador after that cooling break were in trouble.

“I mean Harry Kane… every time it’s him saving them.”

Rooney rues missed Kyle Walker opportunity

Wayne Rooney, meanwhile, says he’s ‘worried’ about England’s right-back situation following the side’s nervy win over DR Congo and claims Tuchel should have been ‘straight on the phone’ to Kyle Walker after Tino Livramento was ruled out of the competition.

Jarell Quansah was clearly not the answer after struggling against Panama and ultimately limped off in that game, while his replacement, Djed Spence, was given a torrid time against DR Congo goalscorer Cipenga.

And, reacting to Spence’s display against DR Congo, former captain Rooney said: “We’ve seen it before where players have come out of retirement… I think the minute Tino Livramento got injured, I think they should have been straight on the phone to Kyle Walker.

“Kyle’s still more than good enough and more than capable of playing in this England team.

“I would have been on the phone to him and saying, “Listen, we need you here so can you come out and help us”, because that could really cost us.