Alan Shearer lauds over Gareth Southgate's tactical decision-making against Wales

Alan Shearer has praised England manager Gareth Southgate's tactical intuition after deciding to bring Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford in from the cold to start against Wales on Tuesday.

Both attacking stars made their first World Cup starts in Qatar as Southgate decided a final group stage clash against their connected rivals would bring the best out of the duo.

The Three Lions boss saw his faith repaid as Rashford and Foden both got on the scoresheet as the Manchester pair showed they deserve to start in the knockout stages.

Southgate made further formational adjustments with the match goalless at half-time as he opted to switch the wingers on either side, with Rashford moving to the right and Foden the left.

The move worked wonders as England scored three goals in 25 minutes to put the game out of reach and wrap up a last 16 tie against AFCON Champions Senegal on Sunday.

Speaking after the match, Shearer paused to pay praise to the England manager's brave call as the Three Lions roared loudest in the Middle East.

Shearer told BBC One: 'Gareth Southgate takes criticism at times for not making substitutions at the right time, etcetera, but he made a decision at half-time to switch Foden and Rashford over and it worked perfectly.

'He also made a decision to start them because as said before there has been a lot of clamour to get Foden into the team, it's worked perfectly.

'He got the results with England scoring goals again and credit where it's due, added Shearer.

Southgate has come in for swathes of criticism with accusations directed at him for refusing to budge on team selection and leaving Foden on the bench for the entirety of their previous draw with USA.

But Foden and Rashford will be hoping they have impressed enough to warrant keeping their places in the knockout stages as England's World Cup journey enters the business end of the tournament.

While Arsenal's Bukayo Saka and Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling will be vying to re-establish their starting place amongst the Three Lions ranks for the Senegal encounter.