‘The better the opponent gets, the better we will get’ – Tuchel after England beat New Zealand | OneFootball

England manager Thomas Tuchel says his side will rise to the challenge when up against the tougher teams, after England beat New Zealand 1-0 in a friendly.

Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game in Florida on what was a less than ideal pitch to say the least.

Tuchel said: “I’m OK with the performance but not super happy. We were better 2nd half & had more bite. We played a lot of long passes 1st half that were not part of training. But the pitch was difficult to play on. It was uneven. It didn’t help us.”

Tuchel changed the XI completely at the start of the second half, and said in the World Cup the performances will be better.

“The better the opponent gets, the better we will get. I am happy no one is injured. Everyone got 45 minutes on the pitch. From there we can go. The energy is right and the quality will come.

“I was happy with the second half. We had more hunger, grit and desire. We weren’t so disciplined and didn’t play according to our plan in the first half which slowed our game down. The second half was better.”