Thomas Tuchel vows to keep ‘hunting’ with England and close gap to world’s best

Under-fire Thomas Tuchel vowed to keep “chasing, hunting and challenging” as England attempt to park their semi-final agony and secure a best World Cup finish since 1966.

A bronze medal meeting in Miami with France awaits this weekend rather than a date with destiny against Spain following Wednesday’s collapse against rivals Argentina.

Anthony Gordon’s strike had England dreaming of a first men’s World Cup final since Sir Alf Ramsey’s side lifted the trophy 60 years ago, only for familiar issues to cost them.

The reigning champions capitalised on England’s defensive approach and secured a late 2-1 victory that has put Tuchel under intense scrutiny heading into Saturday’s third-place play-off against France.

“To put it into context – maybe it’s worth to put it into context – we lost the first official match together,” the heavily criticised England boss said. “Since 14 matches, it was our first defeat. It was a painful one.

“We played in the semi-final against the reigning world champions. We were at 85 minutes 1-0 up. We played against the best player in the world (Lionel Messi) and we lost 2-1, which is painful.

“We made our way to the semi-final. Well deserved. We are one of the top four nations and we wanted this place in the semi-final and we wanted more.

“We are heavily disappointed because we wanted to play in the final. We believed we can do it.

“We built something to have this genuine belief we can do it. We were dreaming about it. Still, I believe that three other nations have almost expectations to win the title. This is not us.

“France, Spain, Argentina expect almost. They are on that level that they expect to win. We are not there yet. There is still a gap to close and this is what we will do.

“This is what we will do from (Saturday). We will we will not stop chasing. We will not stop hunting. We will not stop challenging.

“We have a gap to close, like I said and we have things to improve in a football matter. This is the context, so I think it is in itself not a lot of room for drama.

“If drama is needed and if the blame game needs to be played, OK, you can do that, but I have the right to not engage in that.”

That answer was among a number of tetchy responses during a press conference nominally previewing a match against France that offers a little slice of history, no matter how unsatisfying it may be.

England have lost their two previous third-place play-offs in 1990 and 2018, which Tuchel nodded to when facing a particularly pointed question on the eve of the bronze medal game.

Asked if it was fair that some of his decisions in the defeat to Argentina were described as cowardly, he said: “Not at all. I don’t receive them.

“I don’t read praise and I don’t believe in praise and I don’t believe in comments like this.

“If we win the game tomorrow, we have the best result of a World Cup in 60 years. That’s the perspective to it.”