The Democratic Republic of Congo coach Sebastien Desabre says London-born Aaron Wan-Bissaka has extra motivation to beat England in the last 32 of the World Cup.
The West Ham defender was called up to the England squad by Gareth Southgate in 2019, but had to withdraw through injury and never featured again, choosing to switch his allegiance to DR Congo in 2025.
A year later he is set to face his country of birth in the last-32 tie in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Desabre said: “We have some Premier League players who are familiar, some of them were even born in England and that is always a source of motivation.
“But the number one source of motivation is to play against a serious opponent like England or any other top five in the world. It is hard to find anything more motivating than that.”
England are heavy favourites to progress, even if DR Congo has Premier League players such as Wan-Bissaka, Newcastle’s Yoann Wissa and Sunderland midfielder Noah Sadiki.
But the African side opened their tournament with an impressive draw against Portugal and then kept it tight with Colombia before succumbing to a narrow 1-0 loss.
Desabre wants his side to channel their energy of that 1-1 draw with Cristiano Ronaldo et al.
“We are the underdogs, the outsiders,” he said. “England are ranked fourth in the world, there is a gap but we have shown over 90 minutes we have the tactical skills to compete with nations such as Portugal, so we have our strengths.
“We know what we are going to try and do to qualify, the game is an opportunity to accomplish something big.
“It is safe to say that we don’t have a lot to lose but this is also a motivation.
“We are here because we deserve to be. The pressure is on England, they have a long way to go to achieve their goals.
“We are not going to go there as tourists.”
