Thomas Tuchel admitted he was not happy with England’s performance in their nervy World Cup quarter-final win over Norway – admitting the Three Lions were “sloppy, lucky” and not good enough in “every sense”.However, England matchwinner Jude Bellingham appeared to show a bit of needle about Tuchel’s comments when they were put to him, responding: “Yeah, well. Whatever.”
England put the nation through the mill once again via their comeback victory that was taken to extra-time. After falling behind, Bellingham’s double put the Three Lions into just their third World Cup semi-final since 1966 – but there was more to it than that.
Norway dominated the second half, seeing a second goal disallowed for an Erling Haaland foul and also hit the bar through Kristoffer Ajer. Tuchel was left far from impressed.”We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,” he told ITV Sport. “The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four. It’s amazing. I’m not happy with the performance.
“In every sense. The commitment is there but we made life very, very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played. Sloppy, tactical mistakes, not fast enough. Not repetitive enough. We were lucky enough.
“We will get better, we need to get better. Now it’s celebrations. Now it’s taking it all in. We need everything to make a better performance.”
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Jude Bellingham responds to Thomas Tuchel’s criticism of England’s performance against Norway
Giving the players’ perspective, Bellingham added: “It’s difficult out there. It’s a tough shift. All the players are putting in a tough shift. So my thoughts and appreciation go to the players who put in a good shift out there.”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. That’s not an easy team to play against.”So, I think 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 a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty, and we’ve done that again tonight.”Asked whether he agreed with Tuchel’s assessment that England…
2026-07-11 23:59:00
