"Not happy, in every sense": Tuchel criticizes England's display despite reaching the semi-final, Bellingham responds with one word
Despite the win and the 2026 World Cup semi-final berth, Thomas Tuchel sharply criticized England's performance against Norway, while praising Jude Bellingham and the substitutes — who responded with a terse "Whatever."
Norway
England- 120'Final score: Norway 1 - 2 England
- 117'Yellow card: Kristoffer Ajer (Norway)
- 111'Substitution: ↑ Dan Burn / ↓ Jude Bellingham (England)
- 106'Substitution: ↑ Jørgen Strand Larsen / ↓ Erling Haaland (Norway)
- 101'VAR review
- 93'⚽ Goal for England (Jude Bellingham)
- 91'Substitution: ↑ Leo Østigård / ↓ Torbjørn Heggem (Norway)
- 90'Substitution: ↑ Marcus Pedersen / ↓ David Møller Wolfe (Norway)
- 89'Substitution: ↑ Morgan Rogers / ↓ Ezri Konsa (England)
- 86'Substitution: ↑ Djed Spence / ↓ Nico O'Reilly (England)
- 71'Substitution: ↑ Reece James / ↓ Anthony Gordon (England)
- 68'Substitution: ↑ Oscar Bobb / ↓ Alexander Sørloth (Norway)
- 68'Substitution: ↑ Antonio Nusa / ↓ Andreas Schjelderup (Norway)
- 60'Substitution: ↑ Fredrik Aursnes / ↓ Julian Ryerson (Norway)
- 56'VAR review
- 46'Substitution: ↑ Eberechi Eze / ↓ Declan Rice (England)
- 46'Substitution: ↑ Bukayo Saka / ↓ Noni Madueke (England)
- 45'⚽ Goal for England (Jude Bellingham)
- 45'Half-time
- 36'⚽ Goal for Norway (Andreas Schjelderup)
- 0'Kick-off
Despite England's qualification for the 2026 World Cup semi-final following a 2-1 extra-time win over Norway, head coach Thomas Tuchel made no secret of his deep dissatisfaction with his team's level of performance at the post-match press conference.
Tuchel said: "We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today. I'm not happy with the performance. In every sense," adding: "The result is fantastic, we're in the last four. It's amazing. I'm not happy with the performance." Asked whether the issue was one of mentality, he pushed back firmly: "It's the quality of our game. We need to play better."
Tuchel described the performance as "sloppy, tactical mistakes, not fast enough," before singling out Jude Bellingham for praise: "He does it every single match. World class." He also praised the substitutes who came on: "Reece James was excellent, Morgan Rogers was fantastic, Eberechi Eze and Djed Spence grew into the game. But overall, we got lucky today."
When Tuchel's critical comments were put to Bellingham, his response was terse: "Yeah, well. Whatever," before he defended his teammates, pointing to the difficult conditions and the effort every player put in on the pitch.
