If England win this World Cup, today’s half-time speech by manager Thomas Tuchel would make a great first shot in the documentary that would follow. England had been in the lead twice, thanks to captain Harry Kane, but also conceded twice in the first half. They looked shaky in defence, and, in Tuchel’s words, “We chose to go safe and go backwards. We were too focused on protecting the result.”
These were words associated with the much-memed previous England coach, Gareth Southgate—a man blamed for playing it too safe with the amount of talent at his disposal. Echoes of the past started to haunt English fans.
That was, until halftime.
Tuchel told his players: “Even if we lose… let’s do it our way.” He basically shook the Southgate out of them, and what followed was incredible. Within two minutes after the break, Jude Bellingham, on a solo run from the right, scored England’s third goal. But this was no time for safety. England kept probing for another goal. It was shot after shot, and the Croatian keeper, Dominik Livakovic, seemed to be the busiest player on the pitch for a while, at one point making a triple save to deny England a fourth.
On any other day, England could have been at four or five. “We went full gas” is how Kane described it. Eventually, a fourth did come, as substitutes Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford combined, with the latter netting the goal.
The difference in intent was clear: there were two shots on target in the first half; this went up to 11 in the second. Overall, they had 22 shots on goal to Croatia’s 10.
Bellingham described the speech after the match: “It wasn’t one of those where it was a big drama or shouting; it was just what the team needed.”
Yes, there were holes in the defence, and there was some trouble getting into the game, but for all those who asked how a post-Southgate side would perform at the World Cup, Tuchel says: safety off.
