Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have lifted the lid on Thomas Tuchel’s half-time "speech" that inspired England to a dominant second half against Croatia.
England led twice through Harry Kane’s double before the break, but were pegged back by Croatia each time by way of some shoddy defending.
They raced out of the blocks in the second half, though, with Bellingham restoring their lead in the 47th minute. The Three Lions went on to dominate the remainder of the game, generating myriad chances and eventually killing the game off through Marcus Rashford in the dying embers.
Speaking at full-time, captain Kane pointed to Tuchel’s half-time motivation as key to England’s turnaround.
He told ITV Sport: “You saw that the way we came out in the second half. We went full gas and they couldn’t live with us. That’s the level we have to set for every game.”
Kane went on: “The manager gave us a speech at half time just to say, ‘if we lose, we lose in our way’.
“It was a game of two halves. First half, we were OK. Really disappointed to concede in the way we did, I thought we dropped off.
"The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counter-attack. We had a spell where we could have scored three or four.”
Declan Rice said Tuchel’s words proved he is “a top manager”, while Jude Bellingham said it was “just what the team needed”.
Bellingham continued: "It wasn't one of those where it was a big drama or standing up and shouting. We have a mature group with great leaders in there; everyone knew the level we had to get to. The start of the second half gave us a great platform.”
