Thomas Tuchel hailed England’s second-half performance after a breathless 4-2 win over Croatia. A first-half brace from Harry Kane was cancelled out by a brilliant Martin Baturina strike and clever Petar Musa finish just before the half-time interval.
The Three Lions were sloppy in possession and showed clear signs of tournament nerves, but a brilliant second-half display blew Croatia away. Jude Bellingham scored England’s third just minutes after the restart, with substitute Marcus Rashford adding a fourth late on.
Whatever the German head coach said in the dressing room at half-time worked a treat as England upped the tempo. They could, and probably should have, finished the game with more goals to their name.
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Nevertheless, Tuchel was pleased with the reaction in the second half, hailing the dressing room response and Bellingham’s performance in Dallas.
On the performance: “Good reaction, the first half was a bit complicated for us. It was a bit nervy. The decisions we took, we chose to go safe and played too many balls backwards. We struggled to find any rhythm and didn’t have the confidence to go through the gaps and find the rhythm with some short passes, and then the switch of play.
“I saw a statistic of 33% of ground duels won in the first half and 73% in the second, so even off the ball it was not brave enough, not committed enough. I loved the reaction of the players in the second half. It the second half it was excellent, we deserved to win. It was emotional; there were a lot of emotions involved. It took us a while to get going but we did get going and that’s the positive.”
On what he said at half-time: “Just to reinforce, even if we lose, it will not change my perception of the last 17 days but let’s do it our way. We were too focused on the result, on protecting what we don’t have [a lead] at the moment.
“The second goal was just an example. We were a back seven and we didn’t defend the goal so why do we need a back seven anyway.
“If something happens, the result doesn’t go our way, we want to play the way we want to. I tried to encourage them to go for it.”
View 2 Images(Image: Getty Images)
On Jude Bellingham: “A very good player, he deserved to start and that’s what he needs to do to fight for his place to keep his place. That’s what he did and it was good.”
On Declan Rice being withdrawn: “Let’s see. I hope they’re OK. Normally I would never take Declan out but I didn’t want to take any risks. I think the reaction was excellent, the effort was enormous because we were not very clean when we won balls.
“With the second and first touch after a ball win, we were not clean enough We learn a lot from these moments. We are exhausted but don’t get me wrong, I loved exhausted players in the dressing room.
“I think we needed it against a strong opponent. It’s pressure, it’s the first game of the tournament. We got our win, so today it’s only positives and the day after tomorrow we fix the rest.”
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