England’s coach Thomas Tuchel loved the team’s reaction after halftime in statement win against Croatia in the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2026 on Wednesday. England went into the break at 2-2 and the German manager was happy with the way his team bounced back.

Harry Kane scored from the spot kick to open the scoring for Three Lions in the 12th minute. However, Martin Baturina equalised for Croatia in the 36th minute but Kane was able to once again put his team in front with a wonderful header in the 42nd minute. But once again, Croatia bounced back as Petar Musa scored at the stroke of half-time.

Tuchel admitted they were not at the top of their mark despite Kane’s brace in the first half.

“I think we showed a bit of nerves,” Tuchel said. “Maybe we wanted to do overdo it, but we clearly overthought our decisions. It took us too long to take decisions. When we could play short, we played long. When we could have played long, we played short.

“We couldn’t find a real rhythm in our game and even in defending it took us too long to make decisions to go as a block into the high press. We spend way too much time in a low block, which is also not our identity and not what we wanted to have.”

Tuchel was happy with the way the team responded after half-time. Jude Bellingham and substitute Marcus Rashford scored in the 47th and 85th minute to seal the game for England.

“I had more the impression we have to protect something now, got punished for it, which is psychologically not easy, but I loved the reaction after halftime,” he said. “We encouraged them to go for it, to play with more courage, to be brave, to be ourselves and, like I said, I loved the reaction.”

England will next take on Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in Group L on Tuesday.