World news

It’s not often you head to Fratton Park with anything other than a sense of impending doom.

Particularly in the Carabao Cup – a tournament that Portsmouth have reached the third round of just once since 2009-10. A sunny, warm August evening in 2019 was different.

Not because expectations were any higher than usual, but because Pompey were taking on Birmingham and a potential teenage superstar was in line to make his debut for the visitors.

A friend of mine had a son at the Birmingham academy and had messaged me the weekend to tell me to keep an eye out for a kid that had long been identified as rare and special at St Andrew’s.

A player who had played for the club’s under-18 side at the age of just 14. A youngster who had clubs across Europe tracking his every move.

A record-breaker

His name? Jude Bellingham.

That evening on the south coast, the then 16-year-old became the youngest player to be handed a senior debut by Birmingham since Trevor Francis.

Bellingham was 101 days younger than Francis, who had set the previous record in 1970.

A decent number of Birmingham fans had headed south, with a sighting of Bellingham the primary motivation. Just over a decade before, Portsmouth had played host to Ronaldinho in a Europa League tie with AC Milan.

That night was so loud, so raucous and so utterly unreal, that at times it felt the stands at the famous old ground would collapse in excitement, particularly after Pompey sprinted into a 2-0 lead.

The official attendance was 20,403 – the decibel levels were worthy of the Azteca last weekend.

Bellingham would have loved it. This August evening was a more modest occasion in every sense. A decent crowd of 9,913 were there to witness the first appearance of a player who looks set to be the defining player of his generation.

On Wednesday night, he’ll be the shirt that every Argentina player will want to add to their personal collection. Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez or Enzo Fernandez will be circling.

Bellingham was never going to stick around

It’s unlikely any shirt swapping when on that night at Fratton, but if it had, Bellingham could have exchanged his with the likes of Ellis Harrison – who scored twice on his home debut – or Ben Close (last seen on loan at Eastleigh).

On the pitch, just as he has shouldered England’s World Cup hopes in North America this summer, Bellingham wouldn’t have taken too long to realise that his bedding in process at Birmingham wasn’t going to be a gradual one.

Picked as one of nine changes to Pep Clotet’s side after a promising 1-0 win away at Brentford on the opening day of the Championship season, Bellingham was soon taking on the responsibility of dragging Birmingham back into the game after Pompey went 2-0 up in the first 40 minutes.

It wasn’t an overly auspicious bow by the teenage wonderkid, but you could already tell that his stay at Birmingham would be brief. It wasn’t so much the extra time he had on the ball every time he received it, as much as the way he drove his side forward.

He may have been 16, playing away night for the Championship side against hardened League One opponents but he spent the majority of his 80 minutes on the pitch cajoling and encouraging his teammates.

An ego? Almost certainly. But this was a young footballer who couldn’t have been less intimidated by either his opponents or the opportunity he had been handed at such a tender age.

In 2023, a scouting report from a Premier League club was leaked to The Daily Mail and described Bellingham’s immediate impact in a game that ended in a 3-0 defeat.

“Only 16 but awe-inspiring,” it read. That pretty much summed it up.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly
• Kat Lucas: My England XI to face Argentina – with three major changes

As we filed out of Fratton Park, I had the sense that we too had witnessed something extraordinary from a player who would find himself at Borussia Dortmund within ten months.

Few songs beyond Play up Pompey get much of an airing at this South Coast cathedral.

Had we known then what we know now, we would have gladly belted out Hey Jude in his honour.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/AQuaMTd

NEW YORK – Mask-clad, marauding down the left, Djed Spence was an unlikely hero to emerge from England’s World Cup summer.

Rarely has there been so late a scramble for plane tickets as when Thomas Tuchel announced his 26-man squad in May, Spence’s family quickly following him to the United States. Jordan Henderson aside, his was the least predictable name on the list.

In the absence of sufficient forward-thinking down the middle and the lack of the edge in the wide areas, debates over Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Adam Wharton will rage on. After the briefest of glitches in the set-to with DR Congo, it is telling that nobody is any longer hankering for Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall. On the other side, there is little Spence could do that would ever wholly justify Trent Alexander-Arnold’s surprise exclusion.

Tuchel’s thinking, so impenetrable to a nation learning to trust him, was this. In the very early days at youth level in Peckham, south London, Spence started life as a winger. A right-back by trade, he has been forced onto the opposite flank more often than not at Spurs this season, through an injury crisis that wiped out Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and an unfamiliar left-back in Souza, who played just four times.

The fluidity of the Tottenham Hotspur full-back is such that it makes him the ideal candidate for Norway, a quarter-final by the end of which you would be hard-pushed to explain who was playing where.

In the summer of 2025, before Thomas Frank’s project quickly disintegrated, Spence was even used in a front three. That flexibility is a double-edged sword, the typical criticism being that he is too right-footed to play on the left. Against Mexico it allowed him to slot into a back five when it was backs-to-the-wall time.

Certainly there is an argument that if Spence has been a late developer, he has been as much a victim of circumstance as anything else.

Released by Fulham just shy of his 18th birthday, an alternative path might have kept him at Middlesbrough for another year, had the relationship with Neil Warnock not broken down.

He was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, almost immediately finding himself under another change of manager. On the bridge over the Trent outside the City Ground, a graffiti tag still reads: “Djed Spence, we miss you.” That should give a feeling of where Steve Cooper took him to.

In Antonio Conte he found no such an ally. Days after joining Tottenham, his manager used a press conference to dismiss him as a “club signing” rather than a player he wanted – by reply Spence said the revelation “shattered his confidence”. Conte awarded him a total of 43 minutes. Over his next full season at Spurs after loans at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa, he played an hour of football between August and mid-December 2024. He studied French and Italian but never fully settled.

In Yorkshire it was a knee ligament injury that sent him packing after seven appearances, in Italy the Serie A side’s refusal to stump up £8m to make the deal permanent. Daniel Farke would complain of his lateness to Leeds’ training sessions. It meant little prospect of a north London renaissance, where it would take him two-and-a-half years to start a game. Four years on, he has played under five Spurs managers.

Under Roberto De Zerbi he is still not guaranteed to start, with Udogie and Pedro Porro ahead of him on the left and right respectively. Andy Robertson has arrived too, while Micky van de Ven can yet play at full-back. The make-up of the squad is closer now to Spence’s age bracket and he has forged friendships – still his future is uncertain with Everton waiting in the wings.

Read more

• Interview: Jermain Defoe: I cry when I listen to Simply Red
• Kat Lucas: How Spurs afforded £177m Tonali and Fernandes and their transfer plans now

The other contradiction lies in Tuchel himself, so often berating him from the sidelines in both the warm-ups and the group stages. Tuchel’s England reign will stand or fall on divisive decisions like Spence’s ticket to the US – so far they have been proven right. England are in the semi-finals for just the fourth time ever.

For now, the defender retains the role of cult figure, strapping holding together a broken jaw, unfortunate not to win a penalty against Norway. The refusal to shake hands with Thomas Partey against Ghana. He is the first Muslim to play for England at a World Cup and raises his hands in Du’a on the pitch – those close to him say his faith is central to his career.

England are being dragged towards history by the most obvious heroes in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. None have come from the peripheries quite like Spence to become quite so important.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/Mb0xriR

ATLANTA — Somewhere in the next life Antonio Ubaldo Rattin is throwing heavenly darts at England squad photos and tearing up pictures of the Union Jack.

The former Boca Juniors and national team captain, who died earlier this month aged 89, had come to symbolise in more innocent times the anti-English sentiment in Argentina.

The animus he felt was entirely football-related and rooted in the perceived bias against Argentina at the 1966 World Cup held in England. Sixty years on, his actions appear no less petulant than they did when he stubbornly refused to accept his sending off for dissent, initially declining to leave the pitch and then plonking himself on the red carpet in front of the Royal Box.

That moment defined his life, Rattin returning to it whenever the opportunity arose in interviews with English journalists. He had already been booked before ploughing into the back of Geoff Hurst.

Though this did not trigger his immediate exit, German referee Rudy Kreitlein acted following the resultant free-kick, offended by what he later described as Rattin’s repeated outbursts, which he interpreted as dissent despite having no Spanish. England won 1-0 en route to their only World Cup success.

Argentina were not alone in their negative interpretation of the officiating and overall running of the competition, seeing anti-Latin feeling on the pitch and under hotel beds.

This attitude would later acquire the political dimension that persists today when the leader of Argentina’s military government, General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, a desperate punt to legitimise his deeply unpopular regime via a unifying policy.

The junta came to power 10 years after Rattin’s storied World Cup quarter-final meltdown against England and was gone a year after the failed invasion. Rattin would later enter politics himself spending four years in government as a member of the Federalist Unity Party.

As Chairman of the Sports Committee his focus was elsewhere but by then the Falklands, or Las Malvinas, were established as a sacred political cause in Argentina, not that he needed any convincing of English hauteur.

Later, Argentina would gain their sporting revenge on Rattin’s behalf in 1986 via Diego Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God”.

In material terms Maradona cheated Argentina into a lead they never looked like surrendering. His quasi-religious framing trumped all controversy, and was received by the Argentinian people as an inalienable truth and justification for historic wrongs on the pitch and in the political arena.

Argentina’s anti-English position can thus be seen as a cultural staple built on the Rattin, Falklands and Maradona episodes, foundational pillars that are unlikely to shift whilst an archipelago 300 miles off the coast of Argentina remains under British sovereignty.

We can argue the toss about the validity of sovereign rule more than three centuries after a British sea captain first set foot on an uninhabited rock in the South Atlantic. Argentina claim they inherited the islands from colonialist power Spain after independence in 1818. Default ownership resulting from a prior colonial land grab hardly lands with moral force. But hey, that does not alter the way Argentina view the English, which manifests itself most readily when the countries meet on the sporting field.

David Beckham was a victim of the Argentinian dark arts when sent off for a theatrical flick of his heal whilst prone on the floor following yet another cynical challenge by Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup. England would lose on penalties and Beckham, the English totem of the day, would return home to effigies hanging from lamposts, an added bonus for the delectation of Argentina.

Read more

Kat Lucas: My England XI to face Argentina – with three major changes

Mark Douglas: Six reasons England will win the World Cup

Beckham would gain revenge of sorts, slotting the penalty in a 1-0 victory four years later that saw England progress to the knockout stages before falling to Brazil in the quarters.

The teams have not met since. Lionel Messi has never played a fixture against England. The semi-final here in Atlanta hardly needs extra sauce yet the Messi detail brings it, adding to the narrative power of an already seismic duel.

England touch down on Tuesday following a final morning training session at their Kansas base. By then downtown Atlanta will be flooded by supporters of both teams, some of whom will be seated side by side in the stands. Let us hope calm heads prevail, despite the celestial stirrings of a late departed hero.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/17ap2lM

Newcastle United are aiming to sign at least four more first-team players in the summer transfer window, with insiders admitting that the club are facing “headwinds” in a close season of transition.

The i Paper understands that Newcastle see the three players they have added as roughly “par” for where they expected to be at this point.

But there is an acceptance that the narrative surrounding the Magpies is difficult after they apparently missed out on another top target in Freiburg midfielder Johan Manzambi.

Latest on Johan Manzambi

In an illustration of how complex the transfer window can be, Manzambi’s representatives were still insisting to senior club figures late on Monday morning that they had not made a decision on his future.

However it is widely anticipated that the Switzerland international, one of the breakout stars of the World Cup, will now join Aston Villa for £49m – something Newcastle began to fear might be the case before the weekend.

Newcastle had made a serious pitch to Manzambi but club sources suggest it was never viewed internally as a “done deal” – unlike winger Victor Munoz, who they believe they had persuaded to come to St James’ Park before Liverpool hijacked the move.

While it might feel like a case of deja vu after being turned down by a slew of top targets last summer, the difference this year is they are working on “multiple, concurrent deals” and a much larger pool of potential targets that has been sourced since January.

They are in advanced talks with targets of similar profile and potential – who are also capable of exciting supporters – and anticipate having “three or four” more new signings on board before the season starts.

“We knew there would be points this summer where it would be frustrating, where things might feel difficult,” one senior source said. “But there’s a bigger plan we are working to – and have to work to.”

Two stumbling blocks

Having sold Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali already this summer, the mood around the club feels pretty desperate.

But progress on one of their big ticket items – infrastructure projects which majority owners Saudi Arabi’s Public Investment Fund have been criticised for not moving faster on – is understood to be close.

Those in charge point out that they have little option but to recalibrate recruitment, contemplate sales and absorb some blows given the hand they have been dealt this summer.

Clearly two things are harming their efforts.

The first is their ongoing battle with financial rules, which saw chief executive David Hopkinson summoned to Nyon for a Uefa tribunal earlier this summer and which means they must be disciplined in the transfer market in terms of fees and wages.

The second – and this has been critical in missing out on Munoz and Manzambi – is their lack of European football.

Finishing 12th last season has robbed them of that selling point and also impacted revenues, a sizeable blow given that clubs Newcastle are competing with can offer both.

So while the club are continuing to look at ambitious targets, there are no guarantees they will be able to get every deal they want over the line.

They have managed to fend off competition to sign midfielder Sean Steur, winger Bazoumana Toure and goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen.

A new blueprint

But first-team additions are being worked on, with a midfielder capable of progressing the ball quickly now a priority.

Newcastle are understood to be big fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Joao Gomes and Brazil international Danilo, who plays for Botafogo, is well-known to sporting director Ross Wilson after his stint at Nottingham Forest.

There are also targets based in Germany and Italy who they, understandably, are desperate to keep under wraps.

The club are aware of the perception of their summer efforts but it is emphasised that this is a transition period as they have to move away from the position they were in post-takeover of acquiring top internationals on big fees.

The new blueprint is a “multi-year, sustainable” plan that Newcastle believe will leave them in a far greater position by the start of the summer.

“Judge us at close of play on 1 September” is the message of those attempting to construct Newcastle version 2.0.

And it is probably wise counsel, however uncomfortable it might feel in mid-July.

The elephant in the room

If Newcastle broker a few more of the deals they are working on fans might buy that, but Bruno Guimaraes remains the elephant in the room.

If he becomes the third big name to leave in one summer it will be a very difficult sell, and there are few guarantees on his future as it stands.

As yet Newcastle have not had any contact at all from Arsenal and insiders have dismissed much of the speculation as noise driven by his representatives.

Read more

• Michael Hincks: Tottenham’s spending is an insult to Aston Villa and Newcastle
• Mark Douglas: Newcastle plot three transfers after deciding stance on £60m Arsenal target Bruno

But if Arsenal do get close to their valuation of nearly £100m there is a decision to make – and massive repercussions to manage.

In an ideal world he would stay another year and Steur, viewed as potentially the player to pick up his mantle in the medium to long-term, would become his successor.

As Newcastle have already discovered in this close season, things are never that simple.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/SiyLtzC

NEW YORK — Precisely 50 days lay between Thomas Tuchel announcing his World Cup squad and England reaching the semi-finals for just the fourth time in history.

All of Tuchel’s more curious selections came with an asterisk. Win the whole thing and few pages in the history books would be dedicated to Phil Foden, Cole Palmer or Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exclusions. A 26-man squad selected via 3D chess, which would eventually come into its own in the later stages.

The hour has arrived for those calls to pay off. It is why Tuchel’s initial 18-month contract was extended before the World Cup began – he is the ultimate big-occasion coach and they do not come much bigger than Argentina in Atlanta.

After the sheer exertion and exhaustion of Norway, England still do not have a full complement to choose from – here is how they could line up.

Pickford

Jordan Pickford has made more saves than any goalkeeper left in the World Cup. That is partly because he’s needed to but he has had a remarkable turnaround after a sub-par group stage.

James

Before the tournament began, it looked as if Reece James would be ruled out for the duration. His return is timely given the dearth of options at right-back, with Tino Livramento injured and Jarell Quansah suspended.

That made his deployment in midfield against Norway all the more baffling, while Kobbie Mainoo took in the action from the bench. Starting James is an obvious risk given his fitness issues and the question is whether Tuchel believes he is capable of managing at least an hour before he turns to his “finishers” – but now is the time to go big or go home.

Stones

Ezri Konsa was suffering from hamstring cramps by the end of the quarter-final. He started the game at right-back but it also means one less option for England in the middle. It was John Stones who most effectively kept Erling Haaland at bay. For all the criticism of Alexander Sorloth for not squaring it to Haaland to make it 2-0 to Norway, Stones did just enough to put him off. He has to start, with Dan Burn in reserve.

Guehi

Denied Antonio Nusa with a superb block against Norway and another sure starter.

Spence

Djed Spence’s performances at this World Cup have typified the season he had with Tottenham – excelling particular when asked to fill in on the left away from his natural position at right-back. There were times when he was almost playing as part of the front three in the quarter-final and it very nearly came off with his penalty appeal.

Nico O’Reilly has done little really wrong at this World Cup and both he and Spence carry an element of risk against an attack as good as Argentina’s, but Spence is the more direct threat if England want to properly exploit the channels.

Rice

Rice has four days to recover from the illness that saw him isolated from the group for much of the week leading up to Norway and subsequently taken off at half-time. He has been tidy enough at this World Cup albeit not spectacular – that is as much a by-product of Tuchel’s approach to the midfield as anything else.

If he cannot manage the full 90, Mainoo simply has to get on to try and thread through the types of balls Rice and Anderson have been reluctant to attempt.

Read more

• Kevin Garside: England’s lack of quality is Tuchel’s own fault
• Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly

Anderson

Anderson will be tasked with one job but it is unenviable one – stopping Lionel Messi. He started this tournament at Nottingham Forest and ends it as the most expensive British footballer of all time – he has largely shown why, dominating the midfield. His best creative work came against Mexico and even if not a priority, he will be key if England are to break the lines in between containing Argentina.

Saka

Noni Madueke did not create any chances against Norway and in the same vein as James, it’s time to gamble on Saka even if he is not 100 per cent. Even where he can’t use his pace he is still capable of drifting balls into the box for Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. There is one other solution at hand – and that’s deploying Morgan Rogers on the right alongside Bellingham. Tuchel hinted at it before the tournament but has only done so sparingly.

Bellingham

It is going to sound absurd whichever way you phrase it but Bellingham is England’s answer to Messi, in that he is the one player around whom Argentina will stand or fall in this semi-final.

It sounds equally absurd to have any doubts over Bellingham, but footage from Spain appears to show him clutching at his shoulder more than once against Norway – given his history of shoulder injuries, that has to be a worry.

Gordon

Much like Pickford, Gordon has had a spectacular turnaround when it matters. It felt unfortunate that his big-money move to Barcelona coincided with their decision not to pursue Marcus Rashford on a permanent basis in that it set up an immediate point of comparison within the squad. Gordon has three assists since then and has more than justified his starting place.

Kane

The one fear over Kane at this World Cup was whether, given the lack of high-quality alternatives, he would be able to complete every game.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/K8Z7QYy

In the least surprising news of all time, there is probably going to be more football. The game’s determination to eat itself in the name of big revenue, not to mention pushing the physical wellbeing of players like some mad Buckaroo experiment, is unmatched. Gianni Infantino, Fifa’s president, has conceded that he is examining an expansion to 64 teams for the next World Cup.

Is it worth even feigning shock for effect? The 48-team World Cup was only ever a placeholder, another step along the road to a World Cup every day in every country just so long as the revenue generation curve never dips. Football has no new ideas, just the same ones bigger. I dunno, call them all Super Bowls or something? It’s the post-truth age anyway. Nobody cares if it makes sense.

We should point out that this is not a done deal yet. In his interview with a Swiss media outlet, Infantino insisted that the issue will be “examined and debated within the relevant committees”. To which I’d say that… sorry I can’t. If I speak I am in big trouble.

The most galling thing: this works as a concept. That is how they get you. You thought a 48-team tournament was flawed? You didn’t like the eight third-place finishers and countries hanging on during an unfair process? Yeah nor us, rubbish isn’t it. But we can’t go back to 32 teams now so we’ll just have to go bigger. What else is a poor governing body to do?

Make no mistake: this is a double power-grab. For Fifa, it is the perfect PR move to pull rank over the continental confederations. What a World Cup expansion – doubling the participants from 32 to 64 in eight years – does most is to reduce the intrigue of qualifying and reduces the chances of major nations missing out. It means that more than 30 per cent of all Fifa nations will be at the party.

Which, if you’re running the show and generating the cash, makes complete sense. You don’t want Nigeria, Italy, Cameroon and Denmark missing out and you don’t want the psychodrama of those nations playing out months before your tournament begins. Who knows, you might even sneak in a China, Indonesia or India and then that revenue is really cooking.

On the Road USA

Join Daniel Storey on his 7,500-mile odyssey across the US to tell the stories of a World Cup like no other.

Sign up to his free newsletter here and get it delivered to your inbox throughout the tournament.

This is also a power play from Infantino himself, who has had a difficult tournament. Sure, he’s probably had a lovely time flying to every other match and appearing on the big screen to do a wave like he’s on a Bond villain special of Blankety Blank.

But there have been… difficulties. Like the accusation that his close relationship with Donald Trump that included a political recommendation before the tournament might have led to levers being pulled over the Folarin Balogun suspension overturn.

Now Infantino, we must say, denied that Trump’s calls had anything to do with that decision. But the whole affair did provoke Uefa to release a damning statement about Fifa’s regime and, according to The Times, has caused a loss of support for the president within his own organisation. Infantino is going to get re-elected, but some of his other ideas may have been kicked into the longer grass.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: The penalties at this World Cup have been awful – I think I’ve worked out why
• Kat Lucas: The secret World Cup Panini traders of New York City

Infantino’s core support lies within South America and Africa. So what better way to firm up those relationships than by expanding a tournament that may, coincidentally, significantly increase the number of African qualifiers and give three South American countries (currently down to host three matches between them) an entire group’s matches each. Welcome to the Fifa bakery: bigger pie, more slices.

How should we feel about this – angry, sad, vengeful, resigned? The other way they win is through outrage fatigue. We are pawns in their game, helpless flotsam caught in a torrent of geopolitical posturing and sport’s powerbroking.

Sixty-four teams? Sure. A World Cup every two years? Probably. The 64th spot kept open and 26 autocratic leaders and techno-manbabies each getting to pick a player? Don’t give them ideas.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/cHMkW8A

England might not have exactly swaggered into the World Cup semi-finals but they most definitely can win it.

If anything, the fact that they still have a couple of gears to move through after beating DR Congo, Mexico and Norway should be ominous for the three other teams left standing.

After a suffocating quarter-final win – both on account of the conditions and the tension that accompanied much of their second-half display – England now meet the best team they have played in two years.

But there is nothing to fear from Argentina and clear signs that this is a team that can end that long wait for silverware.

Jude Bellingham

Do not underestimate the impact that one man can have on a World Cup.

Tournaments are often won in moments and England have the ultimate moments man in Jude Bellingham, who is playing the best football of his international career.

Is he the best attacking midfielder we have had since Bobby Charlton? If England prevail on Wednesday, you can certainly construct that argument.

His performances this summer have eclipsed Paul Gascoigne’s breakout tournament in 1990 – not just for impact but also for the maturity of a man whose mentality was questioned in the autumn.

Where are those critics now? The shout that he should be left at home always stretched credibility gossamer thin but in the light of what has happened in the US over the past month it looks like an all-timer.

He is driving England on, scoring goals but also controlling the mood in games and in the camp. “When Jude is on form it sends a message,” Dan Burn said a fortnight ago. And the message has been: England can win it.

Thomas Tuchel’s tactics

“Tournament Thomas” is what they call the phenomenon, when the glint returns to his eye and the juices really start flowing for a manager whose CV suggests he makes the right calls when the pressure is on.

Camp insiders have marvelled at the change in him as the World Cup began. And the lore of Thomas Tuchel being a great knockout manager has only increased with each substitution paying off.

The defensive reinforcements in the Azteca were a masterstroke that few others would have tried – Djed Spence and Morgan Rogers proved game-changers on Saturday.

If Mexico was his masterpiece, Norway felt more like a difficult second album. But his extraordinary interview with ITV after the game illustrated the true nature of the man: relentless, unhappy and not afraid to prick a few egos in the search for more.

If anyone can come up with a gameplan to get England past Argentina, Tuchel can.

There is at least another gear to go through

Roy Keane scoffed that “maybe there is no more to come from England” after Tuchel called for more.

But that is a misguided diagnosis of a team who have shown in fits and starts what they can do.

Against Croatia for 45 minutes – opponents who wanted to come forward and have a go – England purred and so did Tuchel, calling it exactly what he wants to see from his side.

Since then? DR Congo came to frustrate and nearly pulled it off. Mexico were frazzled because of the 10 men. Norway had their gameplan, but it was not to attack.

Argentina won’t be the same. They will fancy their chances of getting at England and leave space that Egypt, Cape Verde and Switzerland all exploited. Playing better teams will suit this iteration of England much more.

They have been so close before

England are no strangers to the latter stages of tournaments but there is something very different about this run.

In 2018 it was wide-eyed wonderment that we were in the deep end of the World Cup. “Three Lions” was going viral but we were just glad to be there.

This time? Not so much. The tournament is now a success for England and Tuchel but they are ranked fourth in the world.

They should be here and this is the third tournament of the last four that they have reached this stage.

That means they have experience but also hunger. The group know what it feels like to be in these big games but also what goes wrong in these kind of matches and that experience should liberate them.

The job they did on Erling Haaland

Norway was not pretty but what was encouraging was how quiet Haaland – who had scored in every international since September 2024 – was kept.

England, barring a hair-brained period in the first half, did a great job on the best striker in the world and it should encourage them that they could do something similar on Lionel Messi, the enduring star of this Argentina team.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly
• Pete Hall: Thomas Tuchel boasts two killer instincts that Gareth Southgate never had

This is a team of mentality monsters

For a minute Tuchel looked like he was going to tear a strip off Gabriel Clarke, the poor ITV interviewer who asked if England’s mentality had been the problem in the stodgy win over Norway.

It was not a problem of mentality, he was told. And Tuchel was right: the desire, fight and mentality of this England side is flawless – they have come through things that would have killed previous generations.

The win over Mexico was impressive but there was something about prevailing against Norway – in the heat, with key players not at 100 per cent and Norway sensing momentum was with them – that suggests this England team are different.

Whatever happens this week, it will not be a failure of bottle. They are a group of mentality monsters.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/L5NeAHP