Rice promises more goals after delivering in European debut

Declan Rice says he has proved he can add more goals to his game after marking his European debut with a sparkling solo effort.

The England midfielder’s 60-yard run and shot capped a memorable 2-0 Europa League win for West Ham away to Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night.

West Ham were already leading through Michail Antonio’s strike when Rice intercepted a Dinamo pass, rode a challenge on the halfway line and surged forward before finishing underneath goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.

“It’s a part of my game I’ve been speaking about for so long. I know I can do it and I know I’ve got it in myself,” Rice told West Ham TV about scoring.

“I read the pass, beat the player to the 50-50 and just thought, ‘Keep going, he’s not going to catch me.’ It was a quick-thinking, instinctive process, because Michail pulled away and I was going to pass, but I thought, ‘If you don’t shoot you don’t score.’

Antonio opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, latching on to a weak Kevin Theophile-catherine back-pass, poking it past Livakovic and rolling it into an empty net.

Rice struck five minutes into the second half to wrap up a comfortable victory for West Ham on their debut in the group stages. “There has been a real buzz around the place, the lads have known for so long what’s been coming and to come away in our first European night and get the win is very good,” Rice said.

“For the club and for the players, it’s a great experience. We know how important it is to win these games. We want to get as many points on the board as quickly as possible and wrap up qualification.”