Jude Bellingham defends England display after Thomas Tuchel criticism: ‘Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like’
Jude Bellingham has defended England’s performance in their 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win over Norway, after head coach Thomas Tuchel said his team were “sloppy”.
Speaking to British broadcaster ITV on the pitch immediately after Saturday’s victory in Miami, Tuchel said: “I’m not happy with the performance. In every sense. The commitment is there, but we made life very difficult for us in how we played, in the way we played. Sloppy, not fast enough. Not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”
Tuchel also spoke highly of Bellingham, who scored twice as England came from behind to win in extra time, saying the Real Madrid midfielder performs at that level “in every match”. The German then commended his team’s mentality, saying you could “bottle it and sell it”. He also then praised his team’s effort when speaking in his press conference, after Bellingham had already been asked about the criticisms.
Bellingham initially shrugged off Tuchel’s initial comments to ITV, saying “whatever” when asked about them in an on-pitch interview.
After praising his team-mates’ mentalities, Bellingham was again asked by a reporter inside the stadium about Tuchel’s criticisms and whether that meant there was more to come from the team. He replied, via DAZN: “Maybe, or maybe that means he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, (Martin) Odegaard, (Antonio) Nusa, (Alexander) Sorloth.
“That’s not an easy team to play against. I think we’ve 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 did that again tonight.”
Later in his press conference, Tuchel was asked about Bellingham praising the effort of the England team over 120 minutes.
“No-one disputed that,” Tuchel said. “I am impressed with the shift they put in, the effort, the team spirit, the belief, and to overcome adversity and to dig in, to find ways to win is in the highest level, they cannot get enough credit.
“But I’m also a football coach and we can play better. It wasn’t a high-level game, we have better games in general, a lot of momentum swings for both teams.
“Full credit to (the) team, we found a way, we are in the last four, this is the most important thing, but the analysing head of me, in football coaching, thinks we can and have to play better football.”
Norway had taken the lead through Andreas Schjeldrup, before Bellingham equalised in first-half added time. That goal proved controversial, with Norway feeling the ball struck the wire connected to the sky cam in the build-up, meaning the referee should have stopped play. Norway also saw a goal disallowed in the second half, before Bellingham scored England’s winner in the early stages of extra time.
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