Tuchel slams 'lucky' England after World Cup quarter-final win;

England have reached the World Cup semi-finals for the fourth time, following their triumphs on home soil in 1966 and runs in Italy (1990) and Russia (2018). The latest achievement came after a grueling 2-1 extra-time victory over Norway in Miami, where French referee Clement Turpin ended an incident-filled quarter-final. Thomas Tuchel's exhausted players sank to their knees in celebration, while fans danced in the stands. Two-goal Jude Bellingham accidentally clashed heads with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during the on-pitch celebrations, and captain Harry Kane lined up with teammates to acknowledge the thousands of supporters who had made the long journey to Florida.

Tuchel's frustration

Yet Tuchel was far from impressed. 'We got lucky,' he said after a game that saw Norway take the lead, miss a great chance to make it 2-0, have a goal disallowed, and hit the bar. 'We made life very, very difficult for ourselves. The result is fantastic. We are in the last four. It's amazing but [I am] not happy with the performance - in every sense.' He added: 'We made life difficult for us in the way we played and how we played - sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough.' Tuchel suggested one thing had helped England advance: 'This is pure mentality.'

Bellingham's response

When asked about his manager's comments and criticism of the performance, Bellingham — who struck in the 47th and 93rd minutes — replied: 'Yeah well, whatever. It's difficult out there, it's a tough shift. All the players have put in a tough shift. My thoughts and appreciation goes to the players out there who put in a great shift.'

England have struggled to set this World Cup alight since overcoming Croatia 4-2 in their first group game. They were held by Ghana, did enough to get past Panama 2-0, fell behind to DR Congo before advancing, and dug deep to see off Mexico 3-2 with 10 men. Tuchel said that while he 'loves' the team, he also expects much more from them. '[There is] no disconnect from me to my team,' he said. 'With my heart, I am fully in love with my players and my team, but we can play better, there are a lot of things to do better.'

Can mentality alone carry England?

The question now is whether character and mentality will be enough as England look to win the World Cup for only the second time, or if they need to improve with a semi-final against Argentina next. England had to endure hot and humid conditions in Miami in getting past Norway, but they have little recovery time before Wednesday's semi-final in Atlanta. They were pushed all the way by Norway in a gruelling game that lasted 122 minutes.

'Maybe he [Tuchel] doesn't know what it's like to play in those conditions against Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard, Antonio Nusa and Alexander Sorloth,' added Bellingham, who is averaging a goal a game at this World Cup after his double took his tally to six. 'They're not an easy team to play against. I can't speak highly enough of the lads. You can't win every game popping the ball and making 1,000 passes, sometimes you have to win dirty and we did that today.'

Former players back Tuchel

Tuchel's post-match comments were praised by several former England players. 'Over the years, we might have had someone come out and say that we stuck together and we were brilliant,' former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport. 'You have to give him [Tuchel] credit for doing it - he was having none of that.' Wayne Rooney, who scored 53 goals in 120 England appearances between 2003 and 2018, said England's German boss was 'spot on in terms of the mentality'.