England needed to ‘move on’ from World Cup pain, says Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel hailed England’s response to an agonising World Cup exit after scoring 14 goals in their opening four Nations League matches.

After a 3-2 defeat to world champions Spain, the Three Lions have bounced back with two comfortable wins over the Czech Republic, either side of a 7-0 thrashing of Croatia, to close in on the quarter-finals.

Tuchel began an extended international break still fielding questions over his management of England’s World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina.

The German coach took the chance to hit back at his critics and believes his side have made an important step forward in their goal to win the Euros on home soil in 2028.

“I think it’s necessary to move on. I think I can only repeat that we didn’t go out on the group stage, sometimes it feels like that, but we didn’t,” said the former Chelsea boss on Tuesday.

“There was a bit of criticism and scepticism around, (but) I said we don’t start new, I believe we don’t have to start completely new because we can build on what we built together and we played some high-level competitive football in the World Cup.

“Now we move to the next step and it’s always important to take the next step. But the commitment of the players and the attitude of the players from the first day in camp was on a very high level and I’m happy that we can prove it in all four matches.”

On the night he matched Peter Shilton’s record of 125 England appearances, Harry Kane struck twice in a 3-0 win over the Czechs at Wembley on Tuesday.

“Amazing, he deserves the stage, he deserves the praise,” said Tuchel of the Bayern Munich striker.

“He was, again, decisive for us on this very special day for him.”