Great medial echo
© Imago
A year before the start of the 2026 World Cup, the alarm bells at title candidate England. The team of Thomas Tuchel lost 1: 3 against Senegal a few days after the weak 1-0 victory in Andorra. “We have lost a test game, so there is no reason to panic,” said Tuchel and summed up: “I am not sure whether we would have earned a little more. We seemed a bit frozen and were not active enough over long stretches of the game.”
The international matches were three and four in the Tuchel era at the Three Lions. Even after the victory in Andorra, the 51-year-old had to face criticism. During the defeat in Nottingham, there were whistles for English selection, which is the world’s most valuable national team with a squad value of 1.4 billion euros and is one of the top favorites at the World Cup. Harry Kane had given England early (7th) before Ismaïla Sarr (40th), Habib Diarra (62nd) and Cheikh Sabaly (90.+3) brought Senegal to the winning road. Jude Bellingham’s equalizer had not counted due to a supposed handball (84th).
The critical English media landscape in particular judged hard about the national team and its trainer. “England as a potential world champion in a year? That really sounds like a bad joke,” wrote the “Daily Mail”. At the center of the criticism was Tuchel. “No recognizable plan. No identity. No improvement – rather a step back – since Sir Gareth Southgate resigned in Berlin in the final of the European Championship 2024 in Berlin after the defeat against Spain,” said “BBC”. Even more direct, the “Times” belonged to the Germans: “The players went to the fans to apologize – he didn’t.”
Tuchel further convinced: “It is a learning experience”
“It is a learning experience – a tough one because we hate to lose it, but that’s how it is. We go into the long break with a bad feeling and a defeat, which is simply not nice and what we didn’t want,” was Tuchel’s conclusion. After the lost EM final from 2021 and 2024, you long for a great triumph in the mother country of football. The only title, the winning of the 1966 World Cup in its own country, was almost 60 years ago.
Tuchel put the weak performance in the past international break with the points of points in the World Cup qualification. “We have three qualifications, we have nine points, we have not yet conceded any goal and we will be competitive in September and we will get two more, 100 percent. We are now more, we are smarter. It is difficult at the moment. I am the first to not like and hate defeats at the moment, but the World Cup is not next week, it is in a year and I think it is naturally in the nomination process and in the player, in the way, it is inherently. To be nominated and to be with us in September, October or November will be competitive because we are in a World Cup season. ” With nine points from three games, the Three Lions lead the group K four points ahead of Albania. The first place releases the ticket for the World Cup, the second has to be qualified.
However, the truth also includes that the previous opponents of Albania (squad value 109 million euros), Latvia (9.5 million) and Andorra (3.7 million) are not among the European heavyweights. In September, England welcomes Andorra to the second leg and a few days later you will meet Serbia (245 million), the first real endurance test in the World Cup qualification.