June 18, 2026
Thomas Tuchel praised his side's ruthless response to a chaotic first-half performance as England opened their Group L campaign at the World Cup with a 4-2 win over Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday.
Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford struck in the second 45 minutes to seal victory after Harry Kane had twice seen goals cancelled out by Croatia in the opening half when Martin Baturina and Petar Musa netted for Zlatko Dalic's side.
"I love the second half, all of it," Tuchel said. "I love the reaction to a very complicated first half against top opponents.
"I think we showed a bit of nerves, maybe we wanted to overdo it, but we clearly overthought our decisions, it took us too long to take decisions. When we could play short we played long, and when we could play long we played short.
