England stars share stance on whether FA should sack Tuchel after France win | Football | Sport

Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane have made it crystal clear they want Thomas Tuchel to stay in charge of the England national team. Tuchel has faced significant criticism for the manner of the World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina. With five minutes to go, the Three Lions led 1-0 through Anthony Gordon’s finish. But they conceded twice late on in Atlanta to Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez, surrendering their spot in a first final since 1966.

Tuchel’s team ultimately succumbed to the endless waves of Argentine pressure as the reigning champions pushed and pushed for an equaliser. England completed only two successful passes in the 18 minutes and 37 seconds between 66:05 and 84:42 against the South Americans. Yet, with Tuchel having come under intense pressure since, including boos in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium before the third-placed play-off against France, the England squad are standing by their boss. They showed that in a thrilling 6-4 win over France, in which England led 4-0 at half-time before surviving a French rally in the second half to go home with bronze medals.

Saka scored a hat-trick, securing his treble with an 87th-minute penalty. And the Arsenal winger, when asked about the criticism his manager has faced since the 2-1 defeat to Argentina, told the BBC: “I think it’s just part of the game. When you lose, there’s always going to be noise. When you win, there’s going to be noise. It’s how you react to it and use it as fuel. Today we finished strong. That’s all we could really do and we did it.”

Rice said to ITV: “It was massive, massive [to win against France]. Not only for him [Tuchel], for us as a group of boys. We didn’t want to end this seven weeks on a low, we made so many people proud this tournament and we have such togetherness, we wanted to go out on a high and I think we did that tonight. Tonight was a real proud moment.

“For sure [this can be a platform for Euro 2028]. 100 per cent. I don’t know why there’s question marks around that. I understand after the other night the question marks. Everyone has an opinion these days but nobody really knows what it’s like to be in our shoes. In moments in games, it gets tough. Looking back on it, yeah we could have done more.

“Over the next two weeks we’ll sit and talk about it and process everything. At the minute it’s still confusing. Because we’ve been in this bubble for seven weeks, it’s hard to think about everything because you’re training every day, there’s meetings, you’re playing. On to the next one and on to the next one.

“It’s been an amazing seven weeks, an unbelievable time. This is part of the journey. We go again. We’ll keep dreaming. This group has more than enough to win. Over the next few years, I hope and I believe that we can and that’s the feeling of the manager and the whole group so we’ll keep giving it everything.”

While captain Kane similarly told ITV: “I think [this win] just helps finish on a small high. Everyone is still going to be hurting once we come down from the win and the medal. They’re still going to be processing why it happened and what we could have done better. It’ll be the same for him [Tuchel] as well.

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“But yeah that’s part and parcel of being the England manager, when you’re daring to dream as big as we dream and you fall short. We all fall short. You’ve got to take that on the chin. We as players have to do it and the manager will have to do it. If anything, that just makes us stronger.

“It was his first ever major [international] tournament. I’m sure he’s learned a lot from this experience, from us and the whole campaign. The best coaches and best players find a way to improve from these experiences.”

Tuchel rallied back against suggestions that this World Cup ultimately feels like a ‘what if?’ kind of tournament for England. Beating France means the Three Lions finished third, which is their best ever World Cup on foreign soil and their best campaign since 1966 when they lifted the trophy. Tuchel said: “The tournament, better? We have the best tournament in 60 years.

“The best tournament on foreign soil. It can always be better when you’re third. We were not shy to dream big. We went for it, we tried. With big achievement sometimes comes big pain, which did 72 hours ago. We lost to the reigning champions. We were 85 minutes up [1-0].

“It is still a tough one and a painful one but it’s not a matter of ‘what if?’ It’s just what it is. Today was the moment to show a reaction and they again did.”

England return to action in September when they take on World Cup finalists and reigning European champions Spain at Wembley. That match is the first of their Nations League group stage, with the two countries also joined by Croatia and Czechia in Group C.