Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly must have been gutted about his country's World Cup 2022 exit at the hands of England – but he's been quick to wish the Three Lions well for their quarter-final clash with France, tipping them to "go far" in Qatar.
After a shaky start, England cruised past Senegal 3-0 in the last 16 on Sunday to reach the last eight for the second successive World Cup – and Koulibaly accepted that he and his teammates had been in a game against Gareth Southgate's side.
Speaking afterwards, the Chelsea centre-back talked up England's tournament chances. He said:
"It was a tough game against one of the best teams in the world. We can be proud of what we did but we need to keep working to reach this level.
"They are a very good team. We know they have a lot of talents and have very big players. They have so many options. They have to keep on believing. We saw that they played a very good game.
"They scored when they were in a good mood and they can go far but the next game will be tough against France, so may the best team win."
Koulibaly was certainly very gracious in defeat, but he's about the challenge England face against Les Bleus: with the red-hot Kylian Mbappe and co. to contend with, 'tough' hardly seems to do it justice.
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