This was the moment we had all been waiting for – when this elite manager the FA had coveted for so long would come to the fore.
Knockout football is Thomas Tuchel’s wheelhouse. It’s his thing. It’s when he comes alive. He often says it himself.
Having masterminded arguably England’s greatest World Cup night since 1966 in the Azteca before silencing Erling Haaland, we all believed that hype. Football was coming home, thanks to a German.
Tuchel will instead look back at the heartbreaking Argentina loss as a potentially career-defining moment. It was the antithesis of top-level coaching. It wasn’t even Sunday League.
Four particular decisions ultimately cost England their best chance of ending 60 years of hurt.
