England stars reveal what Thomas Tuchel told them at half-time of Croatia win | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel gave his players a “speech” at half-time of their 4-2 win against Croatia in Group L at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to Harry Kane.

The former Tottenham man had powered the Three Lions into an early lead from the penalty spot, and restored their lead in the 42nd minute after they’d been pegged back by Martin Baturina.

But given that Croatia managed to find a second equaliser in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time, many expected Thomas Tuchel to berate his players at the break as shoddy defending proved costly once again.

That wasn’t the case though, with Kane and Jude Bellingham – who went on to score England’s third goal just 85 second into the second half – telling ITV Sport after the match that the manager remained relatively calm.

Kane commented pitchside that “the manager gave us a speech at half-time just to say ‘look, if we lose, we lose in our way’.

“I think you saw that in how we came out for the second half. We went full gas. They couldn’t live with it and that’s the level we have to set for every game,” the forward added.

Bellingham, who was preferred ahead of Morgan Rogers in Tuchel’s starting lineup, explained that Tuchel’s so-called speech “wasn’t one of those where it was a big drama.

“He wasn’t standing up shouting, it was just what the team needed.

“We have a mature group, we’ve got great leaders in there and everyone kind of knew the level we had to get to and why we weren’t hitting it. We’re very clear in the second half and the early goal gave us a good platform.”

And when Tuchel was asked for his thoughts on England’s first-half performance, he explained that he felt “the decisions we took, basically we chose to play it safe and play too many balls backward.

“We struggled to find the rhythm, didn’t have the confidence to go through the gaps and find the rhythm with some short passes and then the switch of play.

“I just saw a statistic of 33% ground duels won in the first half and 73% in the second half so even off the ball, I felt we were not brave enough and not committed enough. I loved the reaction of the players in the second half.”

What did he say to elicit that reaction?

“I just reinforced that even if we lose, it will not change my perception of the last 17 days, but let’s do it our way,” he told ITV Sport.

“We were too focused on the result, on protecting what we didn’t have at that moment and the second [Croatia] goal was just an example. I think we had seven [players] back and we didn’t defend the goal so why would we have a back seven? If something happens, if the result doesn’t go our way, we still want to play this match the way we want to and the way we worked together for 17 days.”