Thomas Tuchel reveals Dortmund lesson which he is applying to England's World Cup campaign | OneFootball

Three Lions boss is drawing on his extensive managerial experience ahead of facing DR Congo

Thomas Tuchel has opened up on the time he forgot to prepare Borussia Dortmund for penalties and they lost a cup final shootout to Bayern Munich.

Tuchel is preparing to lead into a match in the knockout stages of a major tournament for the very first time as England face DR Congo today for a place in the round of 16 of the World Cup.

Between spells with Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, six of the finals Tuchel has contested in his managerial career were settled on penalties. Of those six, he has only won two.

One of those defeats came in the DFB Pokal final against Bayern Munich in 2015-16, Tuchel’s first campaign with Dortmund.

Tuchel and FA staff are aware that in the knockout stages of a World Cup that has an extra round, odds are England will likely have to face at least one penalty shootout if they are to become champions for the first time since 1966.

Under previous head coach Gareth Southgate, England won three of the four penalty shootouts they competed in, only losing to Italy in the final of Euro 2020.

Thomas Tuchel’s England are preparing for the possibility of a penalty shootout

PA

Asked whether he is ready for the prospect of penalties, Tuchel replied: “I’ll tell you a funny story. Not so funny for me.

“My first cup final in Germany with Dortmund in my first year, I play against Bayern and against Pep [Guardiola]. It was a nightmare because Bayern and Pep, from 120 possible points they had 130 in the season or something. It was a joke. We had the next-highest number of points and were second.

“We prepared everything in this match. I prepared everything. We needed to twist the tactics, and they twisted the tactics, and we twisted the structure and he twisted the structure, and it was like a fight and people got tired and it went into extra time.

“Then the whistle went and I was just not prepared. I forgot to prepare for a penalty shoutout.

Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund faced Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the 2016 DFB Pokal final and were beaten on penalties

AFP via Getty Images

“So we ended up asking the players: ‘Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot?’ And they were ready for it. They were: one, two, three, four, five, we go. And we were absolutely not ready. And we lost it.”

Tuchel continued: “A very painful experience and a big, big scar on me, because I felt really, really badly that I had let myself down. It was the first time. It will never happen again.

“So from there, we started our own programme, our own preparation. Now I go into the FA and I have — on the highest level, since years and years — a penalty programme that is so easy [for me to] just [pick up] and wait for people to tell me who are the best shooters. We trained it. We have a process in place. So we are prepared.

“This has become such an important part of football now. We have assistant coaches, we have background staff who just set one of the best programmes in place that I have witnessed. So we know exactly what is going to happen. And the platform is there.”

The German, whose own nation lost a first-ever World Cup shootout against Paraguay on Monday, added: “This is still no guarantee that you win it. I had crazy penalty shootouts. Against Liverpool, for example, with 11 [penalties] against 11 or whatever.