Match-winner Jude Bellingham gave a spiky response after Thomas Tuchel described England’s performance in their 2-1 World Cup quarter-final victory over Norway as “sloppy”.
The Three Lions were taken to extra-time by their opponents after Andreas Schjelderup’s opener was cancelled out by Bellingham’s goal on the stroke of half-time.
The Real Madrid midfielder then pounced on Norway goalkeeper Orlan Nyland spilled Morgan Rogers’ long-range shot to give England the lead early in extra time.
Tuchel’s side held on to set up a semi-final clash with Argentina, who beat Switzerland 3-1 in their own quarter-final.
The German boss was unhappy with his side’s performance, saying to ITV post-match: “We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today.
“The result is fantastic. We are in the last four. It’s amazing but [I am] not happy with the performance – in every sense.
“The commitment is there but we made life difficult for us in the way we played and how we played – sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough.”
Bellingham, who is now two goals behind Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in the Golden Boot race, was irked when asked about those comments in a post-match interview of his own.
The former Borussia Dortmund player said: “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.”
When asked to elaborate, Bellingham suggested Tuchel’s words reflected his high standards or a lack of appreciation for both Norway’s quality and the Miami conditions.
"Maybe [it shows the standards he expects], or maybe he doesn't know what it's like to play in those kinds of conditions against Erling Haaland, Odegaard, Nusa, Sorloth, that's not an easy team to play against,” Bellingham said.
The humidity levels at the Miami Stadium meant, despite a temperature of around 35C at kick-off, the ‘real feel’ temperature was pushing 43C.
He added: “I think we tried to create a positive environment, we should continue that going into the final four, I can't speak highly enough of the lads, you're not going to win every game popping the ball and making 1,000 passes.
“Sometimes you have to win dirty and we’ve done that again tonight."
The Three Lions have reached their second World Cup semi-final in their last three tournaments and their fourth out of five international tournaments, including the European Championships.
Prior to 2018, they had only reached one semi-final (1990) since their solitary World Cup victory in 1966.
They will face Messi’s Argentina on Wednesday, July 15 at 8pm BST, at the Atlanta Stadium.
