Thomas Tuchel just watched his team beat Norway in a World Cup quarterfinal and advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2018. Most people would be buzzing. Tuchel was not.
The England manager made that perfectly clear after Saturday’s 2-1 extra-time win. Yes, Jude Bellingham scored twice — once in regulation and once in the extra period — to keep the Three Lions alive. Yes, they’re heading to the semifinals. But Tuchel saw a team that nearly threw it away.
“The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four, it’s amazing, but not happy with the performance,” Tuchel said on the postgame broadcast. “Again, the commitment is there, but we made life very very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played — sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough — we were lucky today.”
It’s not hard to see why he’d be annoyed. England dominated possession but looked disjointed in the final third. There were passes that sailed out of bounds, touches that killed attacking moves before they started, and spells where Norway’s press made them look rattled. Norway didn’t generate much either, but they hung around long enough to force extra time, and in knockout football, that’s all it takes to get burned.
Undefeated but unconvincing
Here’s the weird thing. England hasn’t lost a single game in this tournament. Through six matches they have five wins and a draw. They’ve scored 13 goals and conceded six. Harry Kane has six goals. Bellingham has six goals. On paper, it’s a dominant run.
But the eye test tells a different story. They’ve been shaky at the back at times. They’ve let opponents hang around. And Tuchel, who has never coached a World Cup before this one, seems determined not to let complacency creep in.
The Three Lions have been in this spot before. They made the Euro final in 2021 and lost to Italy on penalties. They made it back in 2024 and lost 2-1 to Spain. So the core of this squad knows how to get close to a trophy. The question is whether they know how to finish the job.
“The commitment is there” is an interesting phrase from Tuchel. It sounds like a compliment wrapped in a warning. He’s saying the effort is fine, but the execution is not. And against better teams — say, Argentina or whoever comes next — sloppy technical work will get punished.
What’s next for England
England will play on July 15 at 3 p.m. ET in the semifinals. They’ll face either Argentina or Switzerland depending on who wins that quarterfinal. Argentina is obviously the tougher matchup on paper, but Switzerland has already shown they can hang with top-tier teams in this tournament.
Tuchel has a few days to clean up the mistakes. Bellingham is playing out of his mind and Kane is doing what Kane does. But if the passes continue to miss their mark and the defensive lapses keep happening, England’s first World Cup title since 1966 will stay out of reach.
Tuchel knows that better than anyone. You could see it in his face after the win. Relieved, but not satisfied.
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