- 15 minutes ago
Tuchel on England thrashing Croatia 7-0 in Rijek
03/10/2026
Stadion HK Rijek, Croatia
03/10/2026
Stadion HK Rijek, Croatia
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SportsTranscript
00:06Good evening everybody, joined here by Thomas Tuchel.
00:10Raise your hand if you have a question and use the microphone available.
00:13Who would like to go first?
00:16Go first, man.
00:19Hi, Thomas.
00:20Hi.
00:22Given the nature of that victory, would it be overboard to describe it as a masterclass?
00:27Please say again.
00:27Given the nature of that victory, both in terms of performance and scoreline, would it be going overboard to describe
00:34it as a masterclass?
00:36No, it was a fantastic victory.
00:38It's an outstanding result, of course.
00:42The performance underlying this result is just on the highest level from the first minute until the last minute.
00:49I think there were some four or five minutes after the 3-0, where we gave the big chance away
00:55and had some ball losses.
00:57And conceded some half chances and delivery, but overall the speed and the technical quality today,
01:05and the hunger of the ball was on the very highest level.
01:12I'm very happy about the attitude, which we finished the game in the second half, we never let go.
01:19We were very humble, we were never arrogant in how we approached this game and made it really a 90
01:26-minute complete performance from start to finish.
01:30Congratulations to everyone, and also the substitutions and energy which came in, the work rate, and the quality was on
01:40the highest level today.
01:42A lot will be said about the goal scorers, and I'm sure you'll be asked about them.
01:45Can I just ask you one on Alex Scott, you were very positive about him last night, first start, what
01:51a start for him.
01:52Yeah, first start and what a start, and what a performance, it's just like so smooth at the moment on
01:58the ball, decision-making is on the highest level,
02:00plays with so much confidence, and he's so active, so confident, and the work rate of the ball is just
02:10the complete package at the moment,
02:13and gave us today a lot of mobility, a lot of variety, and a lot of work rate in the
02:19centre of the pitch together with Elliot.
02:21You can work across with James.
02:24All right, Thomas, congratulations.
02:26Were you tempted to eat the grass?
02:28Yeah, it would be worth it, but it was fantastic.
02:31It was fantastic three days for us, like the whole atmosphere to decompress after the match in Czechia,
02:40and have this beautiful coastline, and then switch on for meetings, switch on for training sessions,
02:47and then get compliments to the team to get then the focus right in a very strange atmosphere,
02:54like felt almost in the beginning in the warm-up like one of these open training sessions in a stadium,
03:02but never like a super important match in Croatia.
03:07But then to get the attitude right and to play so serious and with so much joy and with so
03:12much effort,
03:12so full credit to the team. I'm very, very happy, of course, with this performance.
03:18As you move on from the World Cup, what can a result and a performance do for the belief,
03:25the buy-in, for how you're trying to move forward, just for this group?
03:28Yeah, I think that's the only way to move forward, even if you still feel pain.
03:32You have to play with the pain. If you still feel disappointment, you have to play with the disappointment.
03:36That's just the nature of sport. It was not an easy camp in the beginning,
03:41by the way, also not the end of the camp. It was not an easy camp in the beginning
03:46and after this long tournament for multiple reasons.
03:50But then straight away, like first training session Tuesday, the build-up to the Spain game,
03:55we had an excellent performance against Spain. We had not the result, the reaction to the result in Czechia.
04:01And now the build-up, like I said, the focus in the meetings, the translation of the meetings onto the
04:07pitch.
04:08And to bring it within these circumstances in Croatia against a Croatian team
04:17to win with this dominant performance is just like, yeah, that's the way to move on.
04:22That's the way to move on. I said it many times, we will always have a scar,
04:26we will always feel pain, we will always feel disappointment. That's just the way it is.
04:30But this is the way to move forward. We adjusted some stuff after some things after the World Cup.
04:38And yeah, we played now in the same manner all three matches.
04:43We're getting better at it and the team buys into it. This is the most important.
04:47And that's why full credit to the players.
04:49I know we can pick out loads of individuals from that performance,
04:53but I just want to ask you about the front four in particular,
04:55because they were just devastating today.
04:57Just that fluidity they showed must be really exciting.
05:00Yeah, and the support from the full-backs, of course, and then the movements through the last line
05:04are at the moment on the highest level today.
05:08I get better and better. That's why I didn't want to change so much from match to match,
05:14to get the fluidity going and to get the movements going and to get the automatisms right within the front
05:21four.
05:21But they are very, very good together at the moment.
05:23They enjoy playing together and the work rate is on a high level and the counter-press is on a
05:28high level.
05:29So, these are complete performances. The full-backs keep on pushing and supporting,
05:36and the midfielders keep on pushing and supporting.
05:39So, it's always a team effort, but the front four look very, very dangerous at the moment.
05:44Hi, Thomas. Congratulations.
05:46Juge Bellingham so good through the World Cup, so good through this camp,
05:51had the armband leading the line. Has he gone to another level?
05:55Yes, at the moment it seems like, and you always need to.
06:00The level that you showed last week is never enough in the next week,
06:04that's just the nature of football.
06:07It's like, you know, you can never stand still.
06:11If you stand still, it's like on these electric escalators.
06:15How do you call that? If you stand still, you just go.
06:17If you walk against the escalator, you have to walk to even maintain your level.
06:23You have to develop and you have to push for the next level,
06:26otherwise other teams will catch up.
06:29And that's why it's always necessary to reach for the next level.
06:33Like I said, we adjusted some things, gave the player a lot of responsibility,
06:39and they are a group to be trusted.
06:44Sometimes, yeah, this was impressive.
06:46I think it was the first time that this group played like this together again,
06:50and they were very, very good.
06:52And the translation from the last two matches, from the training sessions
06:56and the meetings into this match was on the highest level.
06:59So, yeah.
07:00Thanks.
07:02Hi, Thomas.
07:03Congratulations.
07:04It was the biggest victory of your tenure.
07:06Was that the best performance of your tenure as well?
07:09Yeah, I think so.
07:10That was a complete performance over 90 minutes.
07:14And why did everything seem to click tonight?
07:18Because it was in a radically different team selection,
07:20it didn't seem radically different tactics.
07:22Why did everything work?
07:23I don't know.
07:24It's just how it is.
07:25We have time to build something, and in three days it's a completely different setup,
07:33a completely different match.
07:34You just cannot…
07:37We always feel comfortable in our process.
07:41We didn't change much within the process how to prepare the team.
07:45I think…
07:46I just believe we have now a lot of experience together.
07:50We had a qualifying campaign together.
07:51We had a big tournament together.
07:53We have big positive emotions together.
07:59We lived through them together.
08:00We had big pain together.
08:02So, we just…
08:03Yeah.
08:03We get to know each other better,
08:05know the players better,
08:06and know what to demand and how to motivate.
08:10And like I said, it was a good atmosphere again,
08:13and a good spirit from the start of the camp.
08:16And it's nice to see that it builds up.
08:19But yeah, it was a day where everything fell into…
08:22Every puzzle piece fell into place.
08:25It's a totally different one in three days.
08:27Now is the moment, of course, to enjoy.
08:29Tomorrow will be a recovery day,
08:31and then it's the last match of this campaign.
08:35And we have to stay hungry,
08:37we have to stay humble,
08:39and get the boys going again.
08:42Can I talk to us very quickly,
08:43how did you find the atmosphere tonight with all the kids?
08:46It's strange.
08:47I love that the children are here,
08:48and I love that they have the chance to see their idols,
08:51and their idols play.
08:54So many Luka Modric shirts in the stadium,
08:58it's just fantastic.
09:00But very unusual,
09:02very, very unusual atmosphere.
09:07How much of a change have you seen in Anthony Gordon
09:09over the last few months?
09:11He looks like he's playing with a little bit more of an edge.
09:14Yeah, he plays with a lot more edge,
09:16and a lot of confidence.
09:19Just see a player full of confidence,
09:21full of belief,
09:22and still buying into his strength,
09:25which is physicality,
09:26and runs through the line.
09:29He plays really high here.
09:32He has for sure found another level,
09:34and another gear.
09:36Very, very confident,
09:37and very decisive in all three matches.
09:40Can I ask about him and Lewis Hall together?
09:43They seem to dovetail really, really nicely on the left-hand side,
09:46and the left-hand side has been an area that people have been unsure
09:51on who's going to nail those places down,
09:53but it looks like if this is an audition over the last few days for the future,
09:59it feels like passing.
10:00I don't want to write Niko Reilly off,
10:03because he played for us the first match,
10:05and Lewis had now two good matches,
10:08and of course he loves to play an offensive full-back position,
10:12he's very good on the ball,
10:13he loves to have the ball possession,
10:15he played very clinical,
10:17he loves these little movements,
10:19and he did very well together with Anthony,
10:22they played for many seasons together,
10:24so you can see that in the coordination of the movements between them.
10:30It helped Anthony, of course, also a lot,
10:32and Lewis had two very good performances.
10:36Hi, Thomas. Congratulations.
10:38Harry afterwards said it was a game on a Premier League level,
10:42trying to take a Premier League approach.
10:43I know you've spoken before about that,
10:45maybe being the way forward.
10:46Anthony Gordon has, Harry has tonight.
10:48Are you pleasantly surprised with how quickly the team
10:50have managed to adopt that philosophy?
10:53Yeah, but they just want to play like this.
10:56It's their belief and it's also their wish and conviction to play like this,
11:02so this is not something that we have to convince them to do,
11:06it's just the way they want to play.
11:08Harry himself plays a very intense game at Bayern Munich,
11:12and, yeah, we still think that we have a certain edge if we play on the front foot,
11:18and if we push as often as possible into a man-to-man approach in the opponent's half,
11:27it's just what the team likes, what the players want and what they want to buy into,
11:30so there are certain risks in it, and we have to manage these risks with work rate to help each
11:37other out,
11:38because like a man-to-man approach does not mean that you're just man-to-man everywhere without security.
11:44If you see today the movements on the opposite side is always towards the ball
11:48and is always ready to help out if we cannot catch the ball in the man-to-man pressure,
11:55so it will always stay a team effort, but the team has this belief and this wish to play like
12:01this,
12:01and we encourage them, it's not that we impose it on the team.
12:05Just finally I suppose that's the blueprint going forward, isn't it?
12:10Yeah, of course, but there's also the danger, it's just a completely different match,
12:14and we should not over-expect, we should not over-expect, that's why the focus is now on the seven
12:19goals,
12:20and now expect like it's always seven goals and always this amount of chances.
12:24There will be very, very different games coming up for us, the next one is a very different game,
12:29that's why I look mostly on the attitude and the work rate, and the work rate together as a team,
12:36and that was on the highest level, and then we will overcome also difficult other matches,
12:41because that's just the nature of football, nothing is easy.
12:45If it looks easy, it's always hard work behind it, and we have to get going again,
12:51we have to stay humble, that's why I loved our approach and how the players acted,
12:55and with the attitude was I think also on the highest level, and I'm very pleased for that,
13:00and now hopefully we will push them to get ready to take recovery seriously,
13:07to get ready for the last step in this camp.
13:10Thank you very much. Cheers.
13:12Thank you, bye.