Tuchel insists England showed again that they can compete with top sides – despite narrow defeat to Spain | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel defended England’s record against the world’s leading sides after their 3-2 defeat to Spain, insisting his team have proven they can beat top opposition.

The England boss was frustrated by questions over the team’s record against top-ten ranked nations, arguing that similar statistics were not highlighted when his side were winning.

England have now won just six of their past 15 games against top-ten ranked opponents.

“That’s why I was surprised about the World Cup because I think, at the World Cup, we beat three top ten teams,” Tuchel said.

“Interesting that in the moment where we win, nobody brings it up, but when we lose one we come up with statistics.”

England pushed Spain close but were ultimately punished for too many errors in key moments.

Lamine Yamal gave Spain an early lead from a Marc Guehi mistake before goals from Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane put the Three Lions ahead.

But Nico O’Reilly’s misplaced pass was punished when Alex Baena fired in an equaliser after Kane had missed a penalty, before Mikel Oyarzabal found a winner.

“I think we did everything today to beat Spain,” Tuchel added. “Details matter on this kind of level.

“The amount of mistakes, clear cut mistakes, was too high on our side today unfortunately and in the last 20 metres they were more composed and more clinical.

“Still, we had them and we had the chance to beat them.

“We will keep on pushing this team. We proved at the World Cup that we are capable of doing it in tournaments.

“Today we cannot prove it with the result but I think the way we played was enough to beat them, but it’s not proven in the result.”