England captain Harry Kane admitted trying to hold on to a 1-0 lead backfired as their World Cup hopes were ended by Argentina’s late show in a 2-1 semi-final defeat.
Anthony Gordon fired England into a 55th-minute lead but Argentina wrestled the momentum in the game, and this time Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions did not work as Lionel Messi laid on late goals for Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez to turn it around.
“I’m gutted,” Kane said. “I’m gutted for the boys, I’m gutted for everyone, the team, the staff, the fans. We played a good game for the large majority of it.
“Once we went 1-0 up we seemed to just try and hold on which at this level is just not enough, so I’m gutted.
“We worked so hard to be here. The lads have given every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is, so to fall short like today is just gutting.”
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Kane claimed the message from Tuchel and his staff was to keep pushing after Gordon’s goal, but it felt as though England increasingly retreated, inviting the pressure which Argentina turned to their advantage.
“We struggled to get pressure on the ball (after the goal),” he said. “I thought especially in the first half and at the start of the second half we pressed them well, put them under loads of pressure, especially high up the pitch which allowed us to win balls and control the game a little bit better.
“After the goal, whether they were putting more men forward or us not being able to match them man-to-man, it was just wave after wave. The lads were putting blocks in but in the end it was not enough.
“The boys were always ready for any moment in the game. When we went ahead the messaging was to go again and get another goal. Once they scored their two goals it was to try and find something but we couldn’t find any momentum to get back in the game.”
Kane added: “We’ve had a lot of good moments in this tournament. We’ve had a lot of good games, another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We’re close. We just need to find that missing piece.
“These tournaments take it out of you. There’s so much effort, pressure, mentality. We’ve shown a lot of that in the last six, seven weeks we’ve been together. We’re just missing that final piece.”
Tuchel: England were too passive after going in front
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England fans react to World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Tuchel described his England side as “too passive” after going ahead against Argentina but insisted he had “no regrets” over his tactical decisions in the defeat.
“We’re disappointed but we got too passive after we scored and conceded a lot of chances and could not turn the ball possession around,” Tuchel said. “We just conceded so many crosses and chances and shots. We were close but we couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.”
Asked about his substitutions, Tuchel insisted the issue was not structural.
“Of course we wanted to go for the second goal but I did not have the feeling that offensive substitutions would help,” he said. “We stayed in our 4-4-2 but we became passive, more and more passive.
“We couldn’t win any balls, we couldn’t keep the ball, so I think it was not a structural problem, we changed nothing. But the match changed completely.
“It’s no problem, I can understand these discussions are out there and there are millions of coaches after the game who know it better.”
But even as criticism quickly followed from pundits and fans, Tuchel insisted he had no regrets.
“The team gave everything,” he said. “We were very, very close. I think we deserved to be 1-0 up. We played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. It was tough. We couldn’t bring it over the line. No regrets.”
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England fans react to World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina.
‘A coaching catastrophe’ – Pundits and reporters deliver verdicts as England crashed out of the World Cup…
Sky Sports‘ Gary Neville: “England will never have a better chance to reach a final than that. They were five minutes plus stoppage time away from the final. They got too narrow and too deep. It was very similar to the Euros final against Italy. It’s about mentality and belief for England, and a bit of quality to keep the ball. I can’t believe how many times I have seen this from England in a tournament.”
England’s Jude Bellingham appears dejected following the semi-final defeat to Argentina
Sky Sports‘ Roy Keane: “Argentina made the most of the momentum. They showed a lot of quality in the end. The best team won.”
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson: “Gareth Southgate took a lot of stick for being defensive – and I thought he did well – and Tuchel has come in and done the same as Gareth. I understand it in the Mexico game when we are down to 10 men and we are going to be under the cosh, but here we had to throw something different at them. I understand Gareth being a defensive coach, he was a defender, so naturally he is going to be defensive. But I didn’t think that about Tuchel and I thought he would throw something different at Argentina and put the pressure on them. We’ve got to learn from it and look forward to the Euros.”
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Paul Merson says he’s devastated at England’s loss to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final.
Sky Sports News’ Rob Dorsett in Atlanta: “It feels overridingly that Tuchel got that wrong. The man who the FA employed because of his brilliant tactical nous in knockout games, has to hold his hands up. England scored and had the upper hand, and Tuchel immediately shifted to try to hold what they had. Sitting deep for more than half an hour with stoppage time to go shifted all the momentum to Argentina. England can have no complaints. The better side won, but there’s an awful feeling that this was to a large degree self-inflicted.”
Sky Sports’ Ron Walker: “Did England need to go so deep so early? It’s easy to say in hindsight, but the outcome of Tuchel’s decision to switch to a back five with 71 minutes gone was as painful to watch as it must have been to play in. They didn’t just surrender territory, they gave up almost 93 per cent of the ball in the 21 minutes between switching to a back five and conceding the winner. Ultimately, the Three Lions didn’t manage a single touch in the opposition box after scoring – but when England fell back on their natural inclination to sit back, Tuchel’s changes only compounded their problems.”
Sky Sports’ Pete Gill: “Unfathomable from England. They asked for defeat from a winning position. We can argue it worked in the last two matches. But the big point is that it was clear it wasn’t working against this quality of opposition long before Argentina scored their equaliser and England lost all of their momentum.”
Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol: “Exactly what happened in Russia in 2018 has happened again. Ultimately, Tuchel got his substitutions wrong. He put on too many defensive players and England retreated into their shell and were trying to hold onto what they had – and you can’t do that against a side as good as Argentina, with arguably the best player the world has ever seen.”
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Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol questions Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions as England lost to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final.
Former England striker Chris Sutton: “It was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative, defending deep, another defender on.
“It’s quite a simple game football, you have to get up the pitch. You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them, that’s what England did and it’s all on the coach as far as I’m concerned.”
Former England captain Alan Shearer: “England had six defenders on the pitch, (he) played his hand and wanted to hang on. Hanging on vs Norway and Mexico.. they perhaps don’t have the quality Argentina have in terms of ability on ball and to punish, plus their attitude. He played his cards very early in the hope he could hang on and it backfired. Those decisions are the ones which can make such as difference.”
Former England striker Wayne Rooney: “We have to be honest. The decisions Thomas Tuchel made have cost England. If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it. Then you start thinking, oh no we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?”
Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart: “I don’t see anything’s changed in that big moment out there. Thomas Tuchel, for as much praise as we’ve given him, for him to change it as soon as he did, I think he realised that’s him saying he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t think they could land any more punches on Argentina.”
Former England striker Michael Owen compared England’s performance to that of finalists Spain, who claimed a 2-0 victory over France in their final-four clash on Tuesday.
In a post on his official X account, Michael Owen said: “Watch Spain at 1-0 last night. That’s courage. That’s bravery. And then watch England at 1-0. What’s the difference? We are a better team than Argentina, I’ve no doubt in my mind. But we deserved to get beat in the end. In fact, it could have been 4-1. Bringing on three defenders at 1-0 up. What message does that send? Until we understand that courage and bravery is controlling possession under pressure and not booting / heading it up the field 40 yards then this will always be the end result.”
