Jude Bellingham was not happy with Thomas Tuchel’s comments (Image: ITV)
Jude Bellingham has hit back at Thomas Tuchel after the England manager was reportedly disappointed with his team’s performance despite the Three Lions qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals. In a tense quarterfinal match in Miami, Bellingham’s two goals defeated Norway after the game went to overtime. Speaking on ITV after Andreas Schjelderup’s bizarre cross that hit the post to give Norway the lead and a 2-1 win, Tuchel said:
“The result is great, we’re in the last four, which is great, but I’m not happy with the performance in every sense of the word. We were lucky today,” Bellingham shrugged and told interviewer Gabriel Clarke after being informed that his boss felt England were lucky to get past Norway. Afterwards, in response to a follow-up question, he said: “It’s difficult out there. It’s difficult. It’s a tough shift. All the players are wearing very tough shirts. My thoughts and gratitude go to the local players who put in another great shift.”
Asked in a separate interview whether Tuchel’s comments were indicative of the standard expected of England, Bellingham said: “Maybe, or maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those situations with Erling Haaland,[Martin]Odegaard,[Antonio]Nusa,[Alexander]Sorloth. It’s not an easy team to play against.”
“We’ve tried to create a positive environment and we need to continue to do that as we move toward the top four. I can’t praise the players enough. You can’t pop the ball and make 1,000 passes and win every game. Sometimes you have to come out with a muddy win and we did that tonight.”
The two-goal midfielder, who has scored six goals in this World Cup alone, added to ITV: “Character, perseverance, even when things weren’t going our way, we found a way to win the game again. Whether it’s 90 points or 120 points, we give it everything we’ve got. You saw that. We had guys who were ready to come out and we just broke the game.”
“Once again I’m very proud of this team. It was a win for everyone, I keep saying it. The whole country won and everyone supported us. It’s all thanks to everyone. It’s a big change from everyone. There’s one thing about maintaining quality and all the players in this group are doing that.”
“You don’t know how much mentality and heart we have until we’re in a situation like that and they prove themselves. Game by game. Next up is Argentina or Switzerland. We’ll go in with the same mentality as we’ve gone into previous games and we’ll see what happens.”
Tuchel was not only satisfied with the performance, but also with the questions asked by Clarke. “The commitment is there, but we made things very difficult for ourselves. We made a lot of technical mistakes. We didn’t repeat enough. We were lucky today,” the German said.
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Thomas Tuchel was irritated by questions from Gabriel Clarke (Image: ITV)
Clarke then asked if England had a mental problem, but Tuchel was not happy with the question. With a puzzled look on his face, he replied, “Mental? To be honest. This is pure mental. How can you ask about mental now? It’s not a mental issue. There’s nothing mental about it.
“You can bottle it up and sell it. It’s the quality of our game. It has nothing to do with mentality.” On the substitutes, he added: “Reece James has been great, Morgan Rodgers has been great, Ebbs (Eberechi Eze) has grown into his game, Jed (Spence) has grown into his game.”
“All the credit goes to them. But overall, yes, we were lucky today. It’s about quality. We need to play better. We’ll be better. We have to be better. It’s a celebration now and we’ll take it all in. We have three days and we need everything. We need a better performance.”
Asked about winner Bellingham, Tuchel answered simply and sweetly: “Enough is enough. He does it every game. He’s world class.”
Unlike Bellingham, captain Harry Kane backed Tuchel’s analysis that England were not at their best.
Jude Bellingham is once again a mainstay for England. (Image: Getty)
“It was a tough game, the heat, it was really brutal. Honestly it was more difficult than in Mexico with the heat and humidity. But again we found a way. It wasn’t our best performance and we know that.”
“I said in the press conference yesterday that there’s another level we can get to. I feel like we’re not there yet as a team, but we’ve got a winner. We’ve got Jude, who’s a game changer again today. The guys defending at the back, the pickers (Jordan Pickford), all of them are putting in great shifts. This guy El (Elliott Anderson) is next to me too.”
“It’s been a great change for him and for everyone. Everyone involved has worked hard. The most important element of a team is its cohesion, its desire, its determination, and we showed it in abundance today.”
When asked what Tuchel had said at half-time, captain Kane replied: “He said in the locker room, ‘Wow, congratulations, we should enjoy it and celebrate.'” But he still feels there’s a part of him that knows we can do better.
That’s a good thing in a way. We are in the semi-finals of the World Cup and we know that we can still improve and find another level. We have to take it positively. We have the most important ingredients as a team and we showed it again. If we can start to get a little bit better with the ball and possession, then yeah, we’ve got some big games ahead of us. ”
