AL KHOR, Qatar –

England only spent a little time celebrating its 3-0 World Cup win over Senegal on Sunday before turning its thoughts to an intimidating quarterfinal against reigning champion France and Kylian Mbappe.

"We have a brilliant tie, haven't we?" England coach Gareth Southgate said of Saturday's mouth-watering match between the two European powers who have not met at a World Cup since 1982.

"It's the biggest test that we could face. They're world champions. Incredible depth of talent, outstanding individual players," he added, noting the historic resonance of the clash alongside the other last eight matchup already decided, Argentina against the Netherlands.

"The two quarterfinals that are already in place are fantastic, historic football rivalries with great games from the past. So it's a brilliant game for us to be involved in and test ourselves against the very best."

England would love a repeat of the teams' last World Cup meeting 40 years ago, when it beat France 3-1 with two goals from Bryan Robson.

But England's sometimes sluggish central defenders, Harry Maguire and John Stones, may have their work cut out trying to shackle Mbappe, the leading scorer in Qatar with five goals.

"He's of course a world class player, he has already delivered big moments in this tournament and in previous tournaments," Southgate said, also noting the talent fellow French strikers Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud.

"Everywhere you look, they have incredible depth of talent. It's a huge test but one we're really looking forward to."

Southgate was delighted to see his team navigate past Senegal to maintain England's unbeaten record against African sides, despite some nervy moments at the start of the game.

"The ruthlessness of the performance was excellent," he said as Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka all grabbed goals for England to match the side's previous highest tally at a World Cup.

Though delighted to see Kane get off the mark, Southgate said the spreading around of the goals was a huge positive.

"I was waiting patiently to try and score," said Kane, who is one goal shy of Wayne Rooney's record 53 for England.

"Hopefully this can start a good run for me personally because that can help the team as well. But as you saw today, we have people scoring from all positions.

"To win 3-0 is a really great night. We enjoy this one but of course our focus turns straight to France. It's going to be a really tough game. They're reigning champions. It will be a good battle. We recover nicely now then get ready for the game.

"If you want to win the World Cup you have to play the best sides in the world and France are definitely one of those."

England could be without Raheem Sterling for that clash, though, after the Chelsea forward returned home to deal with a family matter.

The BBC reported that armed intruders broke into Sterling's home while his family was on the property.

"At the moment clearly the priority is for him to be with his family. We're going to support that and leave him to have as much time as he needs," Southgate said.

"At the moment it's a situation he needs time with his family to deal with and I don't want to put him under any pressure with that. Sometimes football isn't the most important thing and family should come first."