Thomas Tuchel bemoans 'terrible' England errors in Spain defeat as Harry Kane penalty miss assessed

Thomas Tuchel bemoaned defensive errors after England’s back four put in an unconvincing performance in defeat by Spain on Saturday night.

“Terrible start, the worst start possible,” he declared, speaking to ITV Sport. “It makes it so difficult to be behind against this kind of team.

“The reaction was very good. After 10, 12 minutes, we were the better team, but we made two or three big mistakes.

“We conceded big chances but overall we were better, we dominated, we were in the opponent's half, created, scored two goals. I think it was our best 15 minutes after the whistle.”

Harry Kane slipped during his run-up and rattled the crossbar with a penalty shortly after half-time, which would have taken the score to 3-1. Tuchel cited that as the pivotal moment where England lost their grip on the match.

Harry Kane missed a penalty which could have put England 3-1 up

Getty

“(Kane) couldn’t unfortunately convert the penalty, and that may have been the decisive moment because Spain would have, maybe for the first time, believed that their long run of unbeaten games ends here.

“Then another big mistake for the 2-2, and the third goal was the only goal they really scored. The other ones, too many individual mistakes on that level. It is what it is. We have to keep going, learn from it, and take the points back from Czech Republic.”

Despite the result ultimately falling in Spain’s favour, Tuchel was insistent England could take positives from the defeat: “There will always be moments where you suffer against a team like this. But at that level, details matter.

“It matters that you take your chances, it matters that you reduce the decisive mistakes. Both was not in our favour today.

“The quality was there, the effort was there, spells of the game were very, very good but the result doesn’t prove it today.”