Tuchel says England players should be proud of World Cup bronze medal
· Yahoo Sports
Thomas Tuchel hopes England’s heart-broken players can take pride and belief from ending their World Cup journey with a bonkers 6-4 bronze medal match win against France.
A third-place play-off in the Miami heat and humidity was the last thing the group wanted three days on from the heartbreaking late 2-1 semi-final collapse to reigning champions Argentina.
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But England helped restore some pride on a wild Saturday evening at Hard Rock Stadium, where under-fire Tuchel’s side roared into a four-goal half time lead as Bukayo Saka’s brace followed Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa goals.
France, playing in their final match under Didier Deschamps, threatened a remarkable comeback as Kylian Mbappe struck twice and Bradley Barcola found the net after the break, but England found a way to win.
Saka completed his hat-trick from the spot and Jude Bellingham brilliantly wrapped up the nation’s best men’s World Cup finish since lifting the trophy in 1966 after Ousmane Dembele pulled one back.
“It is the first medal in 60 years, the best World Cup on foreign soil so I hope the players can be proud of that in some time,” heavily-criticised Tuchel said.
“We are fiercely competitive, so we almost don’t allow ourselves to be proud with third place.
“Eighteen months ago we set the highest goal, the highest dream to chase. We were very, very ambitious with our dream to make it to the final and win the World Cup so it is very, very painful if you miss out.
“The pain will stay for away but will go away, the scar will stay. This is how it is in high level sport.
“You cannot worship this performance, this mentality today high enough.
“We had one day less day to prepare, we had thousands and thousands of kilometres more in our bones and bodies, we come from altitude, we come from the heat over time, we come from playing with 10 men and again we found a way.
“It was normal for us to show the mentality, normal for us to suffer.
“There was a lot to be proud of and still a part of us will not be fully happy because we had the highest ambition and that’s basically the situation.”
Tuchel went from facing pre-match boos to collecting a bronze medal in Miami, where he faced a press conference inquest that “felt as if we went out in group stage without a win” on the eve of the bronze medal match.
Sunday’s final will be tough to watch, but England got the win their manager felt they needed and he praised injured veteran Jordan Henderson, part of the defeated bronze-medal match team in 2018, for his pre-match pep talk.
“This game will help us for sure even if a part will never allow you to fully celebrate a bronze medal,” Tuchel said. “But I think this is a very important one.
“Jordan Henderson gave a very impressive speech today in the hotel to put this in the right frame and put everyone in the right mindset. He helped unbelievably.
“That was very emotional and very, very impressive to put this game into perspective.
“I said yesterday here we want to close this gap. We feel that there’s still a gap open. There’s still a gap to close to the top three teams who are ahead of us in the world rankings, and that starts with today.”