Thomas Tuchel was involved in a heated post-match interview with ITV after England’s World Cup 2026 quarter-final win over Norway.
The Three Lions came from behind to beat Norway in Miami on Saturday night, with Jude Bellingham scoring the winning goal in the first period of extra-time as he pounced on a mistake from goalkeeper Orjan Nyland.
Bellingham had put England back on level terms on the stroke of half-time, cancelling out Andreas Schjelderup’s effort in the 36th minute that deceived Jordan Pickford.
Tuchel’s side were grateful for a VAR review in the second half as Torbjorn Heggem’s goal was disallowed due to Erling Haaland being adjudged to have fouled Elliot Anderson before a corner had been taken.
Ultimately, England held on to set up a World Cup semi-final against either Argentina or Switzerland in Atlanta next week, though their manager was far from pleased with the performance.
Quizzed by ITV reporter, Gabriel Clarke, if the display was linked to mentality, Tuchel was visibly furious with the line of question.
"I don't know. It's not the mentality. This is pure mentality. It's not about mentality,” was the England head coach’s response.
“You can bottle it up and sell it. It's about the quality - we need to play better."
"Not happy with the performance..."
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 11, 2026
Thomas Tuchel calls for more from his players after England's 2-1 win over Norway...
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"I didn't talk about suffering. I never did. We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,” Tuchel added. “The result is fantastic. We are in the last four.
“It's amazing but not happy with the performance. - in every sense.
"The commitment is there but we made life difficult for is in the way we played and how we played - sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today."
