Defiant Thomas Tuchel clashes with ITV reporter in extraordinary interview as he demands more from his ‘lucky’ England team after World Cup win over Norway – before matchwinner Jude Bellingham hits back with ‘whatever’ jibe

Thomas Tuchel cut an explosive figure at full-time as he clashed with ITV reporter Gabriel Clarke, demanding more from his England team minutes after booking just their fourth-ever World Cup semi-final with victory against Norway. 

England were pushed into extra time against Erling Haaland and Co, Jude Bellingham finding an equaliser on the stroke of half-time after they had fallen behind. 

A second moment of Bellingham magic booked the Three Lions’ spot against either Switzerland or Argentina – but despite raucous celebrations from his players, Tuchel was in no mood to rest on his laurels. 

‘I didn’t talk about suffering,’ Tuchel corrected Clarke, in an indication of the firepower to come. ‘I never talked about suffering. 

‘We made life very difficult for ourselves today. The result is amazing. But not happy with the performance. Again the commitment is there, but we made life very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played, sloppy, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today. 

‘I don’t know, it’s not mentality,’ Tuchel said after Clarke queried whether it was the ‘mentality’ that had led to a drop in England’s level. ‘Mentality? This is pure mentality now! It’s not about mentality.

‘There’s no mentality problem, this is pure mentality, you could bottle it up and sell it, it’s a quality of our games. It has nothing to do with mentality.’

Tuchel did at least agree that his substitutes had been ‘very good’. 

‘Very good. Reece James was excellent, Morgan Rogers was excellent, Djed (Spence) grew into the game. Full credit to them, but we got lucky together today,’ he added.

‘We need to play better.’

On the topic of Bellingham’s genius, he agreed: ‘Enough said. He does it every match. World class.’

‘We will get better, we need to get better,’ Tuchel finished. ‘Now it’s a celebration, we have three days, we need everything, we need a better performance.’ 

When queried about his manager’s interview, an ebullient Bellingham appeared to disagree with Tuchel’s assessment, having initially praised the group’s ‘quality’.

‘The manager’s actually not very happy,’ Clarke told Bellingham on the pitch, who simply replied: ‘Yeah well, whatever.’

‘Whatever. It’s difficult out there,’ he said. ‘It’s a tough shift. All the players have put in a very tough shift. So my thoughts and appreciation goes out to the players out there.’

Harry Kane admitted that Tuchel had voiced similar concerns to the players themselves, telling Clarke: ‘Yeah, he’s just said there in the changing room, obviously massive congratulations, we should enjoy it, but there’s a part of him that knows we can do better.

‘Which in a way is a good thing, we’re in a semi-final, knowing we can improve, still find another level, we’ve got to take that as a positive. We have the most important ingredients as a team, we’ve showed that there. If we can get ticking a little more, with the ball, with possession – we’ve got a couple of good games ahead.’

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