England are in the running for the World Cup, says Chelsea defender Koulibaly

England must be considered one of the best teams in the world and they are capable of going all the way in Qatar, says Kalidou Koulibaly.

The Three Lions beat Koulibaly's Senegal 3-0 on Sunday at Al Bayt Stadium to seal their place in the last eight of the World Cup.

England, World Cup semi-finalists in 2018 and Euro 2020 finalists last year, are the tournament's top scorer with 12 goals, despite conceding only two goals in four matches.

France will face England on Saturday and although Koulibaly knows Les Bleus will provide the toughest challenges, he believes Gareth Southgate's side have every chance of going even further in the tournament.

"They are very good. We know they have a lot of talent, a lot of great players, we all know them," Koulibaly told reporters.

“They played very well, they can go far, but the next game will be difficult against France. I hope the best will win.

"They have so many options but we know every game is different in the World Cup. You can score a lot of points in one game and then the next one will be hard to score.

"They have to keep going and believe in it, I think they can go far."

After losing to the Netherlands in their Group A opener, Senegal – stripped of star player Sadio Mane through injury – beat Qatar and Ecuador to progress to second place, and Koulibaly is happy with what the African Cup of Nations champions achieved in Qatar.

He said: "It was a great tournament for us. We wanted to get out of the group stage, we did, and now it was a tough match against one of the best teams in the world. We can be proud of what we have done."

Edouard Mendy, Koulibaly's teammate at Chelsea, added: "Dealing with defeat is not difficult. We came up against a better team than us, you have to accept that, England played their best.

"They also had all their players at their disposal while we were missing key players. We had to play without Sadio. We also had Idrissa [Gueye] and Cheikhou [Kouyate] missing.

"So when you play against a team like that with key players missing, it's complicated.

"But throughout the tournament and throughout the year, we have shown that Senegal is more than 11 players, it is a group.

"We will continue to move forward, to progress and we will come back stronger in the 2026 World Cup, God willing."