ATLANTA — Thomas Tuchel has vowed to stay on as England boss until Euro 2028 and defended his tactical adjustments in Wednesday’s loss to Argentina in the World Cup semifinals.
Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute goal put the Three Lions on course for the second World Cup final appearance in their history, only for Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez to score twice at the death to snatch a dramatic 2-1 victory in Atlanta.
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While Argentina go on to Sunday’s World Cup final against Spain, England are left with the consolation of Saturday’s third-place match against France in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Before the tournament began, Tuchel agreed to a contract extension with the Football Association that ties him to the role until after Euro 2028 and when asked whether he would remain in the post, Tuchel stated: “First of all, the World Cup is not over. There is still a match to play that we are not looking forward so much to, but there is still a match to play.
“Then we keep on going. I have a contract until the home Euros, and I’m looking forward to that even like now, it is difficult to look that far ahead.”
Tuchel’s substitutions appeared to contribute to England’s loss of momentum thereafter as Argentina poured forward in search of a way back and Lionel Messi created both goals, including Martínez’s winner in the second minute of stoppage time.
Tuchel swapped defender Reece James for Dan Burn, and midfielder Declan Rice for defender Nico O’Reilly in the 82nd minute.
Thomas Tuchel saw his England team give up a late lead to fall to Argentina in the World Cup semifinals. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images”Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but I did not have the feeling that offensive substitutions would help,” Tuchel told the BBC. “We stayed in our 4-4-2, but we became passive, more and more passive.”We couldn’t win any balls, we couldn’t keep the ball, so I think it was not a structural problem, we changed nothing. But the match changed completely.”Between Gordon scoring and Argentina’s winner, England had just 12% possession.”Straight after our goal, with no substitutions, we just conceded way too many crosses and way too many chances,” Tuchel added. “So we tried to help. But of course the responsibility is on the coach. And … if it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say that it was wrong.”England captain Harry Kane was critical of the team’s response to going in front.
“Once we went 1-0 up, we seemed to just try and hold on, which at this level is just not enough, so I’m gutted,” he stated.
England’s exit follows a similar pattern to recent tournament defeats, including their last World Cup semifinal against Croatia in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final against Italy, where they took the lead in both games only to lose.
Tuchel, though, rejected the idea there is something in the DNA of England’s team that leads to such similar failures.
“I love to see these things in a football matter and through football glasses, so first of all I always think solvable on the football field,” Tuchel stated in his news conference. “I don’t believe so much in an English thing and in a curse or whatever, or in like history repeating itself in these moments.
“It’s different coaches, different players, different situations, different opponents, so I think basically I believe in the football thing, which for me still as a football coach cost us today because I think we were just not active enough in any structure.”