England winger Noni Madueke has expressed his readiness to step up his game against the Democratic Republic of Congo in the FIFA World Cup 2026 knockout stages.
Speaking from the Three Lions’ training base in Kansas City ahead of their knockout clash against DR Congo, the Arsenal winger asserted his belief that top players must step up and deliver when it matters most.
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Madueke emphasized that adopting a mindset of healthy delusion and unwavering self-belief is essential for performing on football’s biggest stage.
While acknowledging the stellar performances of teammates like Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, the 24-year-old stated that he is highly motivated to use his pace and versatility to break down stubborn, low-block defences.
“I feel like you have to feel like you’re a top player, you’re here for a reason, you’re playing for your country, you’re on a bigger stage,” he said at England’s training base in Kansas City on Monday.
“You have to have that confidence, that excessive confidence in your ability because at the end of the day, alongside your teammates, on that pitch, it’s down to you to deliver.So whatever gets you in that mind frame to be able to do that, I feel like that’s good.
“I feel like it’s not just us. I feel like every team has difficulties with the opposition setting up 11 players in 30 metres of space. It’s not easy to break down. I think we’ve seen other top nations struggle as well. Spain, Portugal in the last game. So, yeah, it’s just part of football now.
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“Of course, when you play England, naturally you’re going to have a defensive approach because of the quality in our team. From our perspective, we have the same patterns and we’ll look to try and implement them a little bit better than we did in the game against Ghana, which probably will be similar to this one.”
“Two very decisive players, two players that take responsibility for us. I think Jude, especially in the last game (a 2-0 win against Panama), was unplayable. Obviously you know what you’re going to get from Harry in terms of the goalscoring, so I’m really delighted that they’re playing their best football and we hope it continues for the knockout stages because we need them.”
