Thomas Tuchel was not at all satisfied with his English national team’s performance after they advanced to the semifinals, and he made that clear in his postgame interview. Match-winner Jude Bellingham rejected his coach’s criticism.
England once again struggled in the quarterfinals against Norway (2–1). This time, the Three Lions needed a full 120 minutes to advance. And especially in the second half of regulation time, the team led by Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham failed to live up to its role as favorite. Coach Thomas Tuchel agreed, voicing clear criticism in a post-match interview with FIFA: “We were too sloppy, made a lot of technical mistakes, weren’t fast enough, and didn’t execute our plays consistently enough. Today we had the necessary luck.” The German was “not at all satisfied” with the performance.
For this unsparing analysis, Tuchel even received praise in England, because English national team coaches haven’t always spoken so openly in the past. Premier League record goal-scorer Alan Shearer, for example, said on the BBC: “Over the years, there’s always been someone who said we stuck together and were brilliant. You have to give Tuchel credit for not going along with that—he wouldn’t hear of it.”
However, Tuchel didn’t make only friends in the locker room with his words. Bellingham, for example, was also asked about his coach’s interview. And the match-winner, who had already countered Norway’s dream goal with his brace, also had a response for Tuchel: “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play under these conditions against Erling Haaland, Martin Ödegaard, Antonio Nusa, and Alexander Sörloth.”
Tuchel, however, was extremely pleased with the effort his team had shown: “That’s pure mentality—you could bottle it and sell it.” But even that didn’t appease Bellingham. The Real Madrid star made it clear: “You can’t win every game by passing the ball around and making 1,000 passes—sometimes you have to win by any means necessary, and that’s exactly what we did today.”
In the semifinals, Tuchel will nevertheless demand more moments of footballing brilliance from his team. After all, a performance based purely on mentality probably won’t be enough against the Argentines on Wednesday (9 p.m.).