Thomas Tuchel criticises the ‘unfair question’ put to Jude Bellingham after the win against Norway and claims there are no issues whatsoever.
Following the 2-1 victory in the World Cup quarter final, Tuchel was unimpressed with the performance against Norway. But Bellingham defended his teammates.
Tuchel said to ITV’s Gabriel Clarke: “We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today. 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.”
“My thoughts and appreciation go to the players” 🗣️
Jude Bellingham bats off Thomas Tuchel’s ‘not happy’ comment after England progress to the World Cup semi finals pic.twitter.com/fBKsxHJ8RB
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 12, 2026
Thomas Tuchel has no doubts over England’s mentality after they beat Norway in their World Cup quarter-final 🗣️#FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/1a7timFjmM
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 12, 2026
Asked was it down to mentality, Tuchel replied: “Mentality? This is pure mentality now. How can you talk about mentality now? This is pure mentality.”
“It’s not a mentality problem. You can bottle it up and sell it. Why are you talking about mentality?
“It’s the quality of our game [that’s the problem]. It’s about quality, we need to play better.
“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.”
On Bellingham: “Enough said, he does it every match. World class.”
Jude Bellingham to ITV when asked about Tuchel’s comments on England’s performance: “Yeah, well. Whatever. Whatever.
“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.”
Tuchel told talkSPORT: “I wonder who blows these things up, eh? So, there is nothing to blow up and if it’s blown up, it’s blown up in the media, of course.
“What do you expect of a player that just played 120 minutes and gave literally everything if you shorten the comment of his coach, if you don’t tell him that ‘He was world class’, if you don’t tell him, ‘He has world class actions’?
“If you just cut all this and tell him, ‘Oh, your coach said you were sloppy’, what do you expect?
“Yeah, of course you get the comment that you get and then you try to blow it up and people try to create misunderstandings and cracks where no cracks are.
“We come from the same place, we come from being competitive. I am a competitive coach. I push this team to the limit and that was my assessment.
“I think the question was unfair in this moment to Jude because he cut all the compliments out of my assessment and just asked about the critical points, so I can understand.
“What do you expect of a player that just gave everything and stands there in front of a microphone in a flash interview?
“It’s just what it is but we’re as close as ever, and close more than ever before.
“You can see that on the field. The energy and mentality in camp is excellent in the last days and we are ready to go for it tomorrow.”
After a question put to him about the history of the fixture between England and Argentina, Tuchel said: “I would say it’s irrelevant but I am not sure.
“The players are aware of what it means to them. If a fixture has iconic moments, you cannot say it is just another football match.
“We don’t speak, me and my team, about the historic events. The tension is big enough.
“We try to reduce information the bigger the stage gets and the bigger the tension. The magnitude of the game is what it is, it does not help if we engage.”
“It’s a big rivalry,” Tuchel said, as per englandfootball.com. “It’s two big football nations, like everyone who follows football, everyone who follows the World Cup knows about.
“We expect tomorrow [to be] an intense match, we expect an emotional match. I expect a match with a lot of momentum swings and anything else would surprise me.
“We don’t use it [history v Argentina] as a fuel. We know why we’re here. We know what we want.
“We were never shy of expecting that from us, of saying it, of dreaming it. We are in the semi-finals. We arrive very hungry in the semi-finals. We want to have the next win.
“We respect our opponent but we don’t dip into historic events, we don’t make it any bigger than it is. It’s a big football match.
“It’s like you said, a big occasion. We are very excited, grateful, but very hungry and ready to go.
“We know how big the obstacle is. We know how big the ask is but we’re ready for it.
“We prepare for the best version of Argentina. We expect and hope and demand the best of ourselves tomorrow.”
On his players are “hungry” for more, and he said: “We want to take the next step.
“I like the switch of energy in our camp. I feel the players are very excited. I feel they’re very ambitious for this semi-final.
“No one is satisfied and that’s exactly the right mixture to have the performance that we need for tomorrow.
“Everyone is fit to start, except Jarell [Quansah] and Jordan [Henderson]. Declan [Rice] is ready to start and [had] as good a recovery as possible.”
Harry Kane also gave his response to the Tuchel / Bellingham post match interview…
Harry Kane addresses the post-match England interviews from Tuchel and Bellingham
