Thomas Tuchel rages at ITV interviewer after ‘lucky’ England win over Norway | Football | Sport
Having equalised just before the half-time whistle, England went into the break with the momentum, but they weren’t able to get the job done in 90 minutes. Instead, they required extra time to see off Erling Haaland and co, with Bellingham once again on hand to deliver the goods.
However, Tuchel wasn’t happy after the match, telling ITV: “I didn’t speak about suffering, never talked about suffering. We made life very difficult for ourselves. The result is fantastic, we are in the last four, but not happy with the performance… in every sense. The commitment is there, but we made life very difficult for ourselves. Lots of technical mistakes. Not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”
Clarke went on to ask whether it was a problem with mentality, which Tuchel wasn’t pleased with. The German responded: “Mentality? Mentality? This is pure mentality. How can you ask about mentality? 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.”
Tuchel was later asked about Bellingham’s impact on the match, with the ex-Chelsea head coach replying: “Very good [on the subs], Reece James was excellent, Morgan Rogers was fantastic today, Ebs [Eze] grew into the game, Djed 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.”
Man of the Match Bellingham was asked about this during his own post-match debrief, with the Real Madrid man snapping back at his manager. Bellingham said: “Yeah, well, whatever, whatever. It’s difficult out there. It’s difficult. It’s a tough shift. All the players have put on a very tough shift. My thoughts and appreciations go to the players who were out there who put in a great shift yet again.”
Before adding: “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.”
Regardless, England have booked a spot in just their fourth-ever World Cup semi-final. A victory on Wednesday against either Argentina or Switzerland will see them through to just a second-ever World Cup final, with the winner to play one of France or Spain.
