Chelsea’s win over Manchester City was the night Reece James ‘became a man’, says Rio Ferdinand.
It was an excellent team performance by the Blues, who beat Pep Guardiola’s side 1-0 in Porto.
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But there were also some great individual performances, with Chelsea right-back James dealing with City’s Raheem Sterling brilliantly.
The 21-year-old is part of Gareth Southgate’s provisional Euro 2020 squad and Ferdinand believes this display in such a high stakes match shows James is ready for anything this summer’s tournament can throw at him.
“If you’re going to play top level for England in a tournament and Chelsea in a Champions League final you’ve got to have players who can stand up and say ‘leave me one v one and I’ll deal with it’,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.
“Tonight he became a man. Before that it was, ‘is he the right man to play for Chelsea let alone England?’ He answered those questions with aplomb.”
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We haven’t even seen the best of James yet, insists former Chelsea player and coach Joe Cole.
“I’ve seen him come through the academy and he was aggressive but we’ve seen his Premier League debut against Wilfried Zaha and he dispatched him,” Cole added.
“He’s now done it to Raheem Sterling and to do it on the big stage is a level up.
“I think there’s levels to come from him. When he gets in the final third he’s almost too polite. He can drive past players himself and his deliveries are as good as anyone I’ve seen.”
As a right-back, the competition is fierce for James to be starting for England with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker also vying for a starting spot.
But talkSPORT’s Tony Cascarino suggested that James will be Southgate’s first choice right-back at Euro 2020 following this performance.
“A couple of years ago I talked about what a talent Reece is but had to learn to defend better otherwise he’d never make it to the very top,” Cascarino told talkSPORT.
“I know someone who’s related to Reece James and after I did an article saying this they said ‘oh, that’s a bit harsh on Reece’. I said ‘no, he’s a terrific player but has got to become a better defender.’
“But after last night’s performance you’re coming away thinking he’ll probably play right-back for England at the Euros. He’s played his way in.”
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