Thomas Tuchel admits he still bears the “scars” of a showdown with Pep Guardiola – and yet, 10 years later, Tuchel admits he is still wracked by self-doubt, sleepless nights and suffering even after reaching the very top.
So much so that Tuchel watched the four-part Netflix documentary on tennis legend Rafael Nadal and insisted even the best struggle at times.
That showdown with Guardiola was when Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich in the German Cup final on penalties when the England boss admits he did not prepare properly for a shoot-out.
Tuchel learnt a painful lesson which has served him well in knock-out football but it has also prepared him for his first World Cup campaign and the stress of knockout football.
Tuchel said: “You will not find great athletes who didn’t suffer big defeats. You just don’t find them. I just finished a documentary with Rafa Nadal. And even me, I thought he just wins every match out there every year.
“But you see, wow, a year of injuries, a heavy loss there, another big defeat, doubts, sleepless nights, self-doubts and questioning and everyone around him doubting it. Even if you have scars, it is just the way it is. There is no way you get through this without. We all had our losses. We all had our big defeats where you doubt yourself. Ask me how I felt after our 1-0 against New Zealand. I still remember thinking: ‘Am I good enough, am I good enough? Did I get this right? OK, let’s keep on.’
“It’s just the way it is. It is just normal, but you accept it. And if you want to win a big prize, there is not an easy route to get there. Yes, we have some scars — it helps you, actually. It helps you to remember the moment, how painful.
“But it is always possible to redirect your energy. It is always possible to redirect your focus. I was not there 10 years ago, I don’t see how this has anything to do with what we do now. So go for it. It’s crazy the level of self-doubt that Nadal has. And the level of suffering for that one. Phwoar!”
View 3 ImagesThomas Tuchel’s encounters with Pep Guardiola have left their mark on him(Image: Photo by Alexander Hassenstein – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Tuchel boasts an impressive record in knock-out football – 74 per cent ratio in the dugout – but there have been painful moments along the way.
Not least when his Chelsea side lost back-to-back domestic cup finals to Liverpool in shoot-outs at Wembley in 2022. Those were bad, but his showdown with Bayern caused suffering, too.
Tuchel said: “I’ll tell you a funny story. A true story — not so funny… for me. My first cup final in Germany with Dortmund in my first year and I play against Bayern and against Pep. It was a nightmare because Bayern and Pep, from 120 possible points they had 130 in the season or something. Not possible. It was a joke!
“We had the next-highest number of point and were second. We prepared everything in this match. I prepared everything. We needed to twist the tactics, and they twisted the tactics, and we twisted the structure and he twisted the structure, and it was like a fight and people got tired and it went into extra time, and we did this, and then we did this.
“And then the whistle went and I was just not prepared. I forgot to prepare for a penalty shoutout. So we ended up asking the players: ‘Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot?’ And they were ready for it.
View 3 ImagesThomas Tuchel is tasked with taking England all the way this summer(Image: 2026 The FA)
“And we were absolutely not ready. And we lost it. So a very painful experience and a big, big scar on me, because I felt really, really badly that I had let myself down. So it was the first time. It will never happen again.”
Too right. Tuchel inherited a penalty shoot-out masterplan from the Football Association built by former England boss Gareth Southgate after all those years of hurt.
Tuchel said: “It is one of the best programmes in place that I have witnessed. So we know exactly what is going to happen. And the platform is there. This is still no guarantee that you win it. I had crazy penalty shootouts. Against Liverpool, for example, with 11 [penalties] against 11 or whatever. So it is what it is.
“But now it is on the highest level at the moment, thanks to the FA, of course, and thanks to my development. It is just another example that you sometimes have to have a painful experience to understand where to get better.”
Mind you, there was one final warning as the knock-out games begin for England. Tuchel is warning against complacency against Congo who are 41st in the FIFA rankings.
Tuchel added: “Everyone expects us now to beat DR Congo. We are the first ones to expect it from ourselves. It just doesn’t mean that it will happen. We still have to do an awful lot to do it. But we still expect it from us, so fair enough.”
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