Jude Bellingham snaps at Thomas Tuchel in fiery ITV interview after England win | Football | Sport

Jude Bellingham snapped back at Thomas Tuchel after being told the England manager was disappointed in the team’s performance despite the Three Lions booking their spot in the World Cup semi-finals. A Bellingham brace helped down Norway in a tense quarter-final in Miami after being taken to extra time. After the 2-1 win, which came after Andreas Schjelderup put the Norwegians ahead with a freak cross that went in courtesy of the post, Tuchel said to ITV: “We made life very, very difficult for ourselves.

“The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four, it’s amazing, but not happy with the performance in every sense. We were lucky today.” Informed that his boss felt England were lucky to get past Norway, Bellingham shrugged and told interviewer Gabriel Clarke: “Yeah, well, whatever, whatever.” He then said to a follow-up question: “It’s difficult out there. It’s difficult. It’s a tough shift. All the players have put in a very tough shirt. My thoughts and appreciations go to the players who were out there who put in a great shift yet again.”

In another interview, Bellingham replied when asked if Tuchel’s comments show the standards expected for England: “Maybe or maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Odegaard, [Antonio] Nusa, [Alexander] Sorloth. It’s not an easy team to play against.

“We’ve tried to create a positive environment, we should continue that going into the final four. I can’t speak highly enough of the lads. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making 1,000 passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty and we did that again tonight.”

The two-goal midfielder, now on to six goals at this World Cup alone, added to ITV: “Character, perseverance, even when things weren’t working, we found a way to win the game again. Whether it’s in 90 or 120, we’ll give everything we’ve got. You saw that there. Whoever was ready to come on, came on and smashed it.

“So proud of this team once again. It was a victory for everyone, I keep saying it. The whole country wins and everyone is behind us. Credit to everyone, it’s a huge shift by everyone. There’s one thing to have quality, which all the lads in this group do.

“You don’t know how much mentality and how much heart we’ve got until you’re in a situation like that and they proved themselves. Game by game. Next is Argentina or Switzerland, we approach it with the same mentality as we approached all these games and we see what can happen.”

As well as the performance, Tuchel wasn’t happy with the line of questioning from Clarke. The German said: “The commitment is there, but we made life very difficult for ourselves. Lots of technical mistakes. Not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”

EXPRESS SPORT ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page

Clarke then asked whether England had a problem with their mentality, a question which Tuchel wasn’t happy with. Pulling a bemused face, he responded: “Mentality? Honestly. This is pure mentality. How can you ask about mentality now? It’s not about mentality. There’s no mentality problem.

“You can bottle it up and sell it. It’s the quality of our games. Nothing to do with mentality.” On the substitutes, he added: “Reece James was excellent, Morgan Rogers was fantastic, Ebs [Eberechi Eze] grew into the game, Djed [Spence] grew into the game.

“Full credit to them. But overall yeah, we got lucky today. It’s about quality. We need to play better. We will get better. We need to get better. Now it’s a celebration and taking it all in. We have three days and we need everything. We need a better performance.”

Tuchel kept it short and sweet when asked about the match-winner Bellingham, replying: “Enough said. He does it every single match. World class.”

Unlike Bellingham, captain Harry Kane sided with Tuchel’s analysis that England were not at their best.

He said: “Tough game, hot, really brutal. Almost more difficult than Mexico to be honest with the heat and the humidity. But again we found a way. It wasn’t our prettiest performance. We know that.

“I said yesterday in the press conference there’s another level we can reach. Still feel like we didn’t quite reach it as a team but we’ve got matchwinners. We’ve got Jude who was the game-changer again today. The boys at the back defending, Pickers [Jordan Pickford], everyone just putting in an amazing shift, this man El [Elliot Anderson] next to me as well.

“Amazing shift from him and everyone. Everyone involved put the hard work in. The most important ingredient of the team is that togetherness, that desire, that determination, and we showed that in abundance again today.”

Asked what Tuchel said at half-time, skipper Kane responded: “He’s just said there in the changing room, ‘Wow massive congratulations and we should enjoy it and celebrate it.’ But he still feels like there’s a part of him that knows we can do better.

Which in a way is a good thing. We’re in a semi-final of a World Cup knowing we can still improve and find another level. We’ve got to take that as a positive. We had the most important ingredients as a team, we showed that again. If we can start being a little bit better with the ball, with possession, then yeah, we’ve got a couple big games ahead.”