Thomas Tuchel reveals what he said at half-time to inspire England win over Croatia

Thomas Tuchel has lifted the lid on his impassioned team talk to help inspire England’s second-half charge against Croatia, in which he told his players to top ‘focussing on the result’ and what could go wrong.

Harry Kane scored twice in a pulsating first half to go level with Gary Lineker on ten World Cup goals, but a spirited Croatia twice came from behind through Martin Baturina and Petar Musa to make it 2-2 at the break.

The Three Lions flew out the blocks after the interval, though, and were rewarded for their efforts in the 47th minute as a rampaging Jude Bellingham worked himself space and finished cooly to restore the advantage in Dallas.

Tuchel’s men wrestled themselves into the driving seat as the clock ticked down and it was two of England’s substitutes who combined to put the contest to bed as Bukayo Saka assisted Marcus Rashford with five minutes remaining of normal time.

Tuchel’s side held firm to come away with a 4-2 victory and maximum points ahead of their return to action versus Ghana at Boston’s Gillette Stadium next Tuesday.

Kane and Co wrap up their Group L campaign against Panama in New Jersey on June 27.

‘The first half was a bit complicated for us, I felt it was a bit nervy,’ England head coach Tuchel told ITV’s Gabriel Clarke shortly after the final whistle.

‘The decisions we took, we basically chose to go safe and played too many balls backwards, struggling to find the rhythm, didn’t have the confidence to go through the gaps and find a rhythm with some short passes.

‘I just saw a statistic of 33 per cent ground duels won the in the first half and 73 in the second half, so even off the ball, I felt it was not brave enough, not committed enough together.

‘I loved the reaction of the players into the second half. It was excellent and we deserved to win, but it was emotional, there were a lot of emotions involved, and it took us a while to get going. But we did get going and that is positive.’

In his post-match interview with ITV, Kane revealed how Tuchel had delivered a rip-roaring half-time speech, in which he told England’s players to remove all fear and not be ‘afraid’ to lose playing their way.

When asked to verify Kane’s comments, Tuchel replied: ‘I think I said, “Even if we lose it will not change my perception of the last seven days, but let’s do it our way… we’re too focussed on the result, too focussed on protecting what we don’t have at the moment”, and the second goal was just an example of that.

‘I think we were a back seven for the second Croatia goal and we didn’t defend the goal so why would we be a back seven anyway? If something happens, if the result doesn’t go our way, we want to play this match the way we want to and the way we were together over the last 17 days.

‘I just tried to encourage them to go further.’

Tuchel took the opportunity to praise Bellingham after a magnificent performance from the Real Madrid star, with many having called for Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers to start at No.10 prior to kick-off.

‘He’s a very good player,’ the German said of Bellingham.

‘He deserved to start and that’s what he needs to do.

‘He needs to fight for his place, keep his place and that’s what he did. It was good.’

England will look to make it two wins from two and safely secure passage through to knockout phase when they take to the field again versus Ghana in just under a week’s time.

Asked how he rates England’s start in the tournament, Tuchel responded: ‘I think the reaction was excellent and the effort was enormous because we were not very clean when we won balls, with the first and the second touch after the ball win.

‘We weren’t clean enough, we lost a lot of these moments, and you work a lot. It’s probably the most tiring thing you have and we had a lot of them.

‘So we are exhausted but don’t get me wrong, I love exhausted players in the dressing room and I think we needed a strong opponent.

‘It’s pressure, it’s a first game in the tournament. We got our win so today it’s only positives and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we fix all the other stuff.’

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