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Full-back moving back to Spain in £52m dealPlayer reveals he had telephone call with MourinhoMarc Cucurella has admitted that he had not expected to leave Chelsea and that his £52m signing for Real Madrid was done in a day and a half. The Spain left-back also defended himself against the backlash from Barcelona fans, insisting that although he was born and raised in Catalonia and joined the Barça academy aged 14, he could not turn down Real Madrid. “I am very happy,” the 27-year-old said – if maybe not as happy as his wife, Claudia, whose entire family are Madrid supporters.“It was all very fast,” Cucurella said from Spain’s training base in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I got a phone call one morning. My people told me the two clubs had the terms mostly agreed and that I had to decide if I wanted to go there. I had no doubts. It is a big step for me, very important in my career. It all happened in roughly a day and a half. For me, that was the best thing, so it could be all done and I could keep my focus on the World Cup.”The full-back added: “If you had asked me a few months ago, I would probably have told you I didn’t expect to leave Chelsea. I was very happy there, my family too. But in life and football sometimes you need to change and start chapters you did not expect. It’s not easy to leave Chelsea. I lived there for four years and I think I arrived as a young kid. I dreamt of winning trophies and Chelsea gave me the chance. I’m very grateful to what they gave me. But the challenge now is bigger. I can come back to my country and play for Real Madrid which is one of the best clubs in the world. It was not an easy decision but the right one for me and my family.“When this happens it is normally a very long process, and one that does not only depend on me. A lot of things are factored in, and the best thing that could happen was Madrid coming in to sign me so convincingly. It didn’t come out anywhere [in the media] and by the time it did, it was all done. Being at a World Cup while you have other stuff going on in your head it’s not easy. So I am very happy it was all resolved very quick so I can now be 100% focused on the World Cup.”Cucurrella talked to José Mourinho, Madrid’s returning head coach. “We had a chat. I was very happy. Having a manager like Mourinho calling you and saying he can’t wait to work with you gives you a lot of confidence. It was a quick chat, to be honest: I did not want to shift my focus away from Spain duty, but what I liked a lot is that he remembered a lot of things from the game I played against him for Chelsea against Benfica in the Champions League. He insisted that he believes I can add a lot to the team and the dressing room. That just gave me more confidence.”Asked about the anger from Barcelona fans, Cucurella replied: “I have to respect everyone’s opinions. I am very thankful for everything I have experienced in my career and what I learnt in La Masia. But there’s different chapters in life and I thought this was the right step for me. When Madrid comes for you, it is very difficult to say no. I did not doubt that this was the step me and my family wanted to take.“Pressure will be high, but when you move to a club like this what you want is to fight for titles. I am ready for that. My career has not been easy. Now having the chance to play for Real Madrid is a fantastic way to top my career off. [My wife] and her family were always Madrid fans. When she met me, I guess you stop living football as you did – as a fan – and start thinking more about what’s best for you because in the end this is a business and not everything is how you imagined. She will be very happy. Who would have imagined that her partner would be a Madrid player? She has been there in tough moments and now I am happy we can enjoy this together.”

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You don’t win World Cups by running riot for 10 minutes in mid-June but this felt like the start of something newWalking away from Dallas Stadium, feet throbbing in the heat of the late-evening Texas tarmac, it was tempting to picture the scene inside England’s dressing room three hours earlier, the score 2-2 at half-time against a perky Croatia, with Thomas Tuchel’s side in danger of slipping into a familiar tournament pattern of entropy and angst.What exorcism was performed here? Did England’s players burn a ceremonial John Lewis merino wool slim-fit quarter zip? Did Tuchel deliver his calm, tactically focused half-time speech while simultaneously sawing the head off the lifesize Gareth Southgate effigy the team still carries around with it, before inviting his players to whack it like a piñata, open letters tumbling from the waistcoat pockets, leadership mottoes and worries about penalties scattered across the floor as its bearded and frowning head steadily deflates, a moment of pure era-shedding catharsis?There are no second acts in American World Cup lives. Except, it turns out, if your manager can find the right words after a first half during which England played episodic, mechanical football, when they seemed to be still in the old-mannered routines, assembling their siege towers and engines of war, football reduced to the status of stuff that happens in between corners.It would be wrong to describe that second half as a shedding of the Gareth-shaped homunculus on this team’s back. But sometimes you do have to stop trusting the process, change the patterns, and just run forward with a great deal more aggression. England burned an effigy of everything they used to be in the second half in Dallas. Is it real? And where will it lead them across the next two games and five weeks beyond that?The most notable part was the sense of seeing an era-shift happen in real time. If the first half felt like the least flattering notes of Southgate-ism, the second was something closer to whatever it is Tuchel wants England to do now, hunters not gatherers, a team that believes it can actively win games of football rather than waiting for its opponents to die of old age.This was a genuine break from the usual narrative pattern of these occasions, those days when England fade and wilt, the football of the plodding drum. Instead, England had more, not less, energy as the game progressed. They took 22 shots at goal, three-quarters of them in that second half. In their last tournament opener, the 1-0 win against Serbia, they had four shots all game and played like a team trying to run a marathon inside a Victorian diving suit.Nobody with any sense of scale is suggesting England are now ready to win a World Cup, or that they didn’t look in Dallas like a team that could just as easily lose one. But there are positives. They have now played a proper fixture and beaten a good team, both firsts in the Tuchel era. Key attacking players have scored and assisted. Marcus Rashford, an excellent impact sub, looked happy and loose and frankly quite alarming to all those tiring thirtysomething defenders out there.Plus, with all due respect to the cultural impact of Southgate’s England, we got a glimpse in Dallas of what a genuinely elite tactical manager might do with that legacy. There will be a lot of talk about the Surge, that period after half-time when England basically ran all over Croatia, as the midfield pressed harder up the pitch and played more aggressive and more accurate vertical passes.Tuchel talked afterwards about England’s fans enjoying this spectacle in the pub, and there is a point here about connection, the way people want to see their team play, the way England fans support the team. The Surge wasn’t exactly pub football, four-pints football. It felt more chemical, more wired and wild-eyed, football of the pre-match buttock-launching firework party.The point has been made that England played like a Premier League team, but they were more like a Premier League team of the 2000s, all galloping adrenaline, running power, the can’t-live-with-it thrusts. This is not in itself a recipe for victory against elite opponents. But the key is that this team has that in its chamber. The ability to overwhelm is in there. The backpack is loaded with ordnance. The Surge was a warning to the rest of the field that while you will have chances to take this team down, you’re also going to get clipped yourself.Tuchel’s substitutions were also progressive. At 3-2 up the England playbook states that you protect and fall back. But Tuchel did not reach for Jordan Henderson, who really does appear to be present here as the midfield equivalent of an emotional support dog. Instead, he sent on three attackers, then rejigged again as the midfield began to look a little open.It would also be wrong to overlook the good bits in that first half. The set-piece threat is a genuine asset, and England really should have scored twice more from corners. Even the first-half penalty carried some vindication of Tuchel’s selection policy, a foul caused by one very quick, agile footballer outmanoeuvring a 40-year-old. This will happen when that’s how you stack your team. England may lack some craft, but they can also be physically horrible to play against.It was a good post-match for Tuchel too, one where he still jabbed a little at Jude Bellingham, even after his best game for England. “He has learned to be a team player,” was Tuchel’s verdict, which is quite funny and salty and naggy. Keep Bellingham hungry. Make him want to prove things. This feels like a good line.There was merit too in the unusually chippy half-time chat from Anthony Barry, a reflection of the fact Tuchel doesn’t care about upsetting people, doesn’t follow the regimental line of sombre deference and respect for fame and status.Instead Tuchel has a refreshing brusqueness as England manager, like the Victorian stepfather who will slap you on the back as he sends you off to boarding school, but who really doesn’t want to hear anything about doubt, fear, flags, heavy shirts and so on. It is a major asset, used right, for a team that had become a bit mannered and sombre in its previous guises.There are clearly elements for England to fix. Luka Modric is more gnarled these days: less little boy dressed up as a witch, more former four-time surfing champion of Middle-earth. He was eventually harried from the pitch in Dallas. But England’s midfield is still a problem. The spacing felt wrong in the first half. Declan Rice is carrying an injury. Midfield is always key in knockout football, in those periods when the ability to control the tempo becomes the key asset. Do they have the ability to play that way too now?The defence also looks rusty. England’s starting attack fitted the Tuchel model of energy and speed, but also looked thin on paper. The good news is England’s starting front three in Dallas have 85 goals between them. The bad news is 81 of those have been scored by Harry Kane. This had better work, Thomas.The good news is Kane looked happy in the system, with runners ahead of him and space to drop deep. Even his retaken penalty carried a premonition of the half-time regearing. There are no second acts in American lives. Except when a goalkeeper has clearly encroached by leaving his goalline. The retake was just right. Don’t stutter and wait, Harry. Spank it into the corner.Does any of it mean much in the longer term? England don’t often start well, even in their better summers. We remember the last-gasp burgle against Tunisia on the fly-ravaged banks of the Volga, the 1-1 against Ireland in 1990, which felt like watching a medieval game of bladder wrestle in a Gloucestershire village.There is also a long way to go. You don’t win it by running riot for 10 minutes in mid-June. But there was something different here, and Tuchel is their key asset in this regard, if only as a point of difference, the polar opposite of sclerotic tactical caution and the weight of caring a little too much. Whatever happens from here this feels like progress. England: now available in fun form.

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⚽️ Kick-off time: 3pm local/6pm EDT/11pm BST/8am AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot Switzerland have several toes in the knockout stage after overwhelming Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 20 minutes in LA. Freiburg’s Johan Manzambi, aged 20, came off the bench to score twice.Canada’s head coach Jesse Marsch makes two changes. Cyle Larin, who came off the bench to equalise against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ali Ahmed come in for Liam Millar and Tani Oluwaseyi. Alphonso Davies is among the substitutes. Continue reading...

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The hype around Johan Manzambi will only heighten after his star turn from the substitutes’ bench helped Switzerland out of a hole and got their tournament truly up and running. The 20-year-old managed to excel for Freiburg in their comprehensive Europa League final defeat against Aston Villa last month and, with 73 minutes played here and three minutes after entering as part of a triple substitution, his superb volley put an end to a sterile contest, hooking a right-foot shot into the Bosnia and Herzegovina net.At that point Switzerland had registered eight shots, three on target, but things unravelled in the final third. It was, of course, a similar story in their opener against Qatar, when they finished with 26 shots but had to settle for a draw. Manzambi scored twice here, his second finish understated but sumptuous, before Ermin Mahmic thumped in an unstoppable volley in stoppage time, the ball clocked at 71mph according to the wraparound LED screen. Switzerland’s captain, Granit Xhaka, capped the scoring from the penalty spot after Amar Memic tripped Djibril Sow.Manzambi was involved in the buildup to Switzerland’s second goal too, another substitute, Rubén Vargas, reading Breel Embolo’s pass to send a low first-time finish past Nikola Vasilj. The game had been set up for Edin Dzeko, aged 40 and 63 days, to take centre stage after becoming the ninth-oldest player to feature at a World Cup but Bosnia and Herzegovina’s hopes of advancing to the knockout stage of the tournament now hinge on Wednesday’s final Group B game against Qatar.A grey day in Los Angeles meant no searing temperatures to contend with but nevertheless the first-half hydration break provided Bosnia and Herzegovina with some welcome respite. Other than a couple of early set pieces – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s specialist subject – Switzerland had given Sergej Babarez’s side the runaround. Dan Ndoye blasted against the side netting and found joy inside the left channel. A few minutes later he tried to flick Fabian Rieder’s cross goalwards after Granit Xhaka’s weighted ball into the box. Switzerland schooled their opponents, who were also guilty of giving Murat Yakin’s men a helping hand. Kerim Alajbegovic, the exciting 18-year-old promoted to the starting lineup, played a risky pass that was intercepted by Rieder and Ndoye got a shot away, though fortunately for Vasilj it was lacking conviction.It felt slightly alarming that with 10 minutes of the first half remaining Nikola Katic wildly celebrated winning a goalkick, punching the air after staving off another Swiss attack, even if the Schalke defender has form for doing so; he celebrated every tackle when he lost a tooth in Plymouth’s shock triumph over Liverpool in the FA Cup last year. A few moments earlier Bosnia and Herzegovina had their first sight of goal after Alajbegovic fed Edin Dzeko inside the box. Dzeko stood up a dainty cross towards the back post but Benjamin Tahirovic recorded a swing and a miss. Approaching the interval, Remo Freuler blocked Dzeko’s first shot after a bright run by Alajbegovic.After the half-time whistle sounded, presumably Switzerland’s struggles to again apply the finishing touch flowed through their players’ minds as they headed down the tunnel. They had four shots but only one on target. The numbers were not quite as stark as in their opener with Qatar, when they finished with 26 shots to six; Qatar’s stoppage-time equaliser came courtesy of a Miro Muheim own goal.Ndoye was lively here but Embolo was a little more on the periphery, Xhaka showing his frustration when seemingly on crossed wires at the pivotal moment. None of this should have surprised Switzerland, though, with Bosnia and Herzegovina stubborn opponents; Barbarez’s side had drawn their past six matches, including their penalty shootout victories in playoffs against Wales and Italy to reach this stage.Switzerland were hardly relentless in the second half but the game continued in a similar theme, promising attacks coming undone in the final action. Manuel Akanji pinged a ball from right to left, Ndoye picked up the baton and sent another tame shot at goal, Vasilj making a comfortable save at his near post. It was Ndoye who produced one of the game’s best moments, reading Xhaka’s flighted pass and launching into the air to send an overhead kick at goal. Ndoye looked to the skies after Vasilj got two hands to his effort. Any joy would have been short-lived with Ndoye flagged offside.If Switzerland were going to score, Ndoye looked the most likely candidate. Amar Dedic took matters into his own hands to stop Ndoye streaming down the left early in the second half, earning a booking for tugging at the winger’s shirt. Bosnia’s record goalscorer Dzeko was given a yellow card soon afterwards for a late challenge on Akanji and was then withdrawn on 63 minutes. It was an up-and-coming talent in Manzambi who finally rippled the net.

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Head coach says 2022 semi-finalists are now even betterScotland could deploy back three against Group C rivalsSteve Clarke has warned Scotland the Morocco team they will face on Friday are superior to the one who reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2022.Scotland kicked off their tournament with a 1-0 win over Haiti, which came hours after Morocco impressed during a 1-1 draw with Brazil. Clarke answered with a firm “absolutely” when asked whether Morocco will pose as stern a threat as Brazil to his side in Group C.“We are under no illusion about the size of the task,” said Clarke. “I feel Morocco are a really, really good side. They reached the last four of the last World Cup and I have a feeling this Morocco team is slightly better than that, so that gives you an idea of the task ahead. They have power, they have pace, they have little bits of skill that can open up a game. For me they are the real deal, a top side. We will have to be at our very best to compete.“It is a big challenge for us. We give them a lot of respect. We expect they will probably have more of the ball, more possession. We have to make sure that when we have the ball we can be a threat to Morocco.”Clarke deployed a back three for the friendly against Côte d’Ivoire in March, which may serve as a clue to his plan or Morocco. It is a near certainty that Scotland will not lineup in the 4-4-2 formation used against Haiti. “Every system that we have ever played, we have put a lot of work into,” Clarke said. “I have shown over my time as head coach that we can play different systems. It is something that we have always wanted to expand on, more systems, different personnel for different games.“Sometimes the Scottish psyche and mentality is that we are a little more comfortable when we are the underdog. We were the favourites against Haiti and found the game a struggle, but we managed to win. This time we are the underdogs and sometimes Scotland prefer it that way.”Barring an utterly bizarre series of results, a point should be enough to earn Scotland a tournament knockout berth for the first time ever. They could progress on three points, which brings protection of goal difference into the conversation. It is one, however, Clarke is happy to ignore. “You just have to play the game,” said the 62-year-old. “The first thing is to try and win, if you can’t win then don’t lose. Permutations and whatever else is for you guys [the media] and all the punters to think about, not for us.“The players feel good about themselves. They wanted to win a game at a major tournament and have done that. Now they want the next step, which is to get what we need out of the next two games to make a little bit of history for Scotland. The training was electric today. We feel good.”Clarke made time during pre-match media duties to offer words of support to the family of Donnie Strathie. The 76-year-old had travelled to Boston as a Scotland fan but died in the aftermath of the Haiti game. “In among all the good news that has come out the World Cup for Scotland, that is obviously very sad for his family; his daughters, his grandchildren,” said Clarke. “My thoughts and condolences are with his family.”

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They can put the matches away, at least for a little while. Before this game the South Africa head coach, Hugo Broos, had responded to fierce criticism for how his side had started the World Cup by revealing that eight months ago, having qualified for the competition, a friend told him they would erect of a statue of him and that he had said: “Make it out of wood; that way it will burn more easily when I lose.” Defeated 2-0 by Mexico, they were seven minutes away from following that up with a 1-0 loss to Czechia, left with no points, no goals and not much hope either. But then, almost from nowhere, a penalty allowed them to live to fight another day, the bonfire avoided for now.Teboho Mokoena was the man that scored it and what it meant could be seen not just in the way that he celebrated but in the tears that had rolled down his face during the national anthem. A draw is not a great result and it was not a great game but there was a smile at the end, and hope too. South Africa can still go through: victory over South Korea would virtually guarantee it; a win for the Czechs would see them through too. Whether they are capable of securing one is a different matter.“This will be different,” the Czech head coach, Miroslav Koubek, said after his side’s 2-1 defeat by South Korea. Yet the beginning did not scream improvement. They had only been playing 45 seconds when a long, looped cross from the left found Patrik Schick all alone at the far post, barely six yards out. It was as if South Africa had yet to start playing and as if the striker had not either, like he did not expect it to reach him in the first place. With the ball falling from a height and the contact weak, his attempt on goal, if it could be called that, dribbled apologetically wide.If the header was not great, Broos’s side were worse in those opening stages. Accused of being too negative against Mexico; here they could have done with a little more negativity, some of what Carlo Ancelotti likes to call pessimistic defending. Czechia were dominating; South Africa were allowing them to and they found themselves a goal down after just five minutes.Czechia’s second World Cup goal began in the same way as their first: from a throw-in. Up the line it went, Adam Hlozek escaping into a wide space on the left and pulling the ball across an almost empty area. Khuliso Mudau watched it pass and watched two opponents do the same. Wondering whether to stay or go, by the time he had decided it was too late and he was caught in the middle. The defender’s mistimed step towards the ball made up the attacker’s mind. With one neat touch, Alexandr Sojka took Mudau out the game and set up Michal Sadilek to finish.South Africa appeared out of it, Czechia cutting through them easily and accumulating four shots inside 10 minutes. A deflected effort from Oswin Appollis which hit the side netting was South Africa’s first on 12 minutes, but at least they had turned up. At least now it felt like a game, at least they were playing. Iqraam Rayners could not get to a Mudau cross inside the six-yard area but there was life at last and a lovely move out from the back saw the full-back get in just after the hour. From a neat set-up, Mokoena thumped it over from 25 yards. Just before the break, Matej Kovar dropped the ball at the feet of Thapelo Maseko, but his shot was blocked. South Africa were in this; Czechia had invited them to be.But as the second half began they sought to reassert themselves once more, Sadilek getting free to find Vladimir Darida, whose poor touch meant it came to nothing. Schick’s header was then easily stopped by Ronwen Williams and a cross from Sojka was cleared by Mokoena before Jaroslav Zeleny’s clever pass almost set up Sadilek. All of which might make it sound like a goal was more imminent than it really was and soon the game became a more cautious affair. For South Africa only Appollis offered any real glimpse of invention. Not much happened in the period before, to more boos, referee Tori Penso sent the players to the touchline for more drinks they did not need and a team talk they probably did.South Africa needed something in the fourth quarter, that was for sure. Even if it was just a reaction, a flash of anger, maybe even fear. What they got was a gift. Czechia had let them play, which did not seem like the worst plan given how little they could create, but from nowhere in particular it came to pass. Coming inside from the right, Thapelo Maseko had a go from outside the area; the ball hit Pavel Sulc on the arm and Penso did not hesitate. From the spot, Mokoena scored. He ran to the corner, thumping at the badge, as teammates ran after him from the pitch and the bench.South Africa were alive. They were pushing too, the final 10 minutes or so offering more than the previous 80 had: here was some excitement at the end. Lukas Porovd struck wide at one end and suddenly, in the fifth minute of added time, Evidence Makgopa was in, only to hit straight at the goalkeeper. There was still time for one more Aubrey Modiba effort, who was blocked by David Zima. That really would have been a firestarter.

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Steve Clarke highlights squad mentality before Morocco game but Napoli midfielder stands out with his goalsIt is a conversation in Milan that should resonate in Massachusetts. Italy’s failure to qualify for another World Cup has triggered harsh assessment of Serie A, including why there is a shortage of home players making sufficient impact there. The success of imports, whose talent level is marginally above average, supposedly says much about decline within the Italian game.It would be harsh to place Scott McTominay in that category. The sharpness of the 29-year-old’s career trajectory since leaving Manchester United for Napoli depicts a player who was underappreciated at the club of his youth and early professional years. McTominay left Manchester with a point to prove and did so with bells on, courtesy of a title win and the label of Serie A’s most valuable player in 2025. Should McTominay choose to leave Naples, where he is adored, he will not be short of Premier League options.You need only walk in the vicinity of Hampden Park to learn of McTominay’s standing as a Scotland player. Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law have never been depicted on portraits on the gable end of terraced flats close to the national stadium. McTominay, a player born in England, produced such an iconic moment against Denmark last November that it will sit as an artistic reference point for ever more.That game pretty much summed up Scotland’s path to this World Cup. It was a fixture in which Denmark were undeniably the stronger team for long spells. Greece were superior in Glasgow yet lost 3-1. Scotland lost in Athens and stumbled past Belarus. There were high points, of course, in a campaign that ended Scotland’s 28-year World Cup wait, but also elements of oddity. McTominay’s overhead kick was one of three extraordinary goals as the 10-man Danes were beaten 4-2. Searching for clusters of excellent Scotland displays in recent competitive matches is not particularly easy. Whisper it, but the same applies directly to McTominay.History and the lack of emerging talent in Scotland suggests this could be McTominay’s World Cup chance. If not, it is surely his best. Likewise the 31-year-old John McGinn, 32-year-old Andy Robertson and Ché Adams, who is 29. The motivation for this experienced group to make an impact on football’s biggest stage must be huge. It should work in Scotland’s favour.Perhaps McTominay feels he has no more questions to answer. Watching him toil as Scotland squeezed past Haiti actually raised plenty of them. For Scots it brought back ominous memories of 2024 and a European Championship where team failure owed plenty to the underperformance of star turns. When Scotland face Morocco in the Boston Stadium on Friday, hope rests heavily on McTominay’s shoulders.Steve Clarke understandably bristles at the notion of McTominay as different from any other player. The 62-year-old has taken Scotland to three tournaments while building a club ethos. Players look along to teammates in the dressing room rather than up or down. It is, though, impossible to ignore McTominay’s status among a squad which has plenty of decent members and precious few of elite level.“Scott is one of our key players,” said Clarke. “I am lucky, I have got a lot of key players. Andy Robertson, John McGinn. For me Grant Hanley, Kenny McLean, people like that. We have built a really good squad over the years.“Scott gets a lot of headlines but he is also the first to understand that without the help of his teammates it is more difficult for him to be that talisman. If he can be a talisman against Morocco, then that would be great. As a coach I am very reluctant to go on about individuals. Everything we have built has been our squad.”Hope springs from the likelihood that McTominay will be afforded more time and space against Morocco than he did against Haiti, who swarmed around him. In fairness to McTominay, his quiet game did include the striking of a post. His lead-up had also been disrupted by an upset stomach.“I think the Haiti game was a struggle for a lot of the players, not just Scott,” said Clarke. “I thought Haiti controlled our midfield very well so you have to give credit to them. Sometimes you don’t get the chance to bring your attributes to the game because of what the opposition do. I think that might have been the case the other night. Scott is in a good place and ready to go again.”If Clarke, as is expected, reverts to a lone striker there will be heavy reliance on midfielders to provide goal threat. Scottish chances will come at a premium against a side ranked sixth in the world. McTominay, who has found the net a credible 15 times in 71 Scotland appearances, will need to be at his ruthless best.Clarke used pre-match media duties on Thursday to rave about Morocco’s individual and collective abilities. Scotland’s hopes of causing the latest upset in this riveting tournament rely heavily on their difference maker. Now has to be McTominay’s time.

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The way substitutes combined for the fourth goal against Croatia vindicated Thomas Tuchel’s desire to instil a brotherhood ethosIt is Bukayo Saka who ignites the move. Tight to the right, approaching halfway, the England winger turns on a sixpence and surges away from Josko Gvardiol. Saka’s work in tight spaces, his close control, is a consistent delight.He plays a pass up and inside for Morgan Rogers and, at this point, Djed Spence is running on the outside. Rogers looks for him but Nikola Vlasic slides in to challenge and the ball breaks. Saka is alive to it, slicing inside and beating Josip Sutalo. England sense the knockout blow because Saka has options, the best being Marcus Rashford over to the left. Croatia have only Josip Stanisic back. Saka goes to Rashford, who steadies himself, jinks inside Stanisic and sidefoots low into the bottom corner.It is a beautiful goal and it gives England an unassailable 4-2 lead in the 85th minute. Their World Cup is off to a flyer and if they have confirmation – validation, too – of a swashbuckling second-half performance, a shift in the collective mindset, there is a detail that Thomas Tuchel cannot ignore.Ever since he came into the job, the England manager has been obsessed with the creation of a brotherhood in his squad; players who can put their main-men club personas to the side for the greater good, who, if they are asked to play 20 minutes or even only 10, will do so with everything they have. For Tuchel, the clinching goal against Croatia was the purest example of what he has wanted to see because Saka and Rogers, Spence and Rashford had all come on as substitutes.For Rashford, in particular, it must have been a tough one to take when Tuchel said he was starting with Anthony Gordon on the left rather than him. Rashford was lively in the first half of England’s World Cup warm-up game against New Zealand; Gordon not so in the second period. And yet Tuchel was not entirely happy. When he criticised his first-half team for lacking positional discipline, it came to feel as though he had Rashford in mind. Tuchel started Gordon in the second and final warm-up match against Costa Rica, giving him 71 minutes and being rewarded with a driving performance.Although Rashford flickered again when he came on to replace him – as did all the substitutes – Tuchel knew he had to go with Gordon against Croatia.Here in the US there is a glamour in Major League Baseball about the role of closing pitcher; the player who leaves the bullpen towards the end to get the team home. It is not the same in football. No one wants to be a closer. And yet Tuchel knows his version of them will be crucial. Can he sell them as the heroes of his squad?‘We needed this quality [from the substitutes] to bring it over the line,” he said. “I know they are all starters. So it is new for them. But they also know it is a period of time that is so special and they buy into this idea that we do it as a team. This is the only way.“We are so strong from the bench and I was so impressed with everyone against Costa Rica, for example, because they pushed on the buttons and pushed on the gas and kept suffocating the opponent.”Rashford’s finish against Croatia was a champagne moment for him; only his second goal in 13 England appearances under Tuchel. The other was the stoppage-time penalty for 5-0 against Serbia in Belgrade last September. It feels like a 50-50 decision for Tuchel between Rashford and Gordon. And with Gordon not playing well against Croatia, the debate will rage over who ought to start against Ghana on Tuesday.It is not quite the same on the opposite wing between Saka and Noni Madueke, the dynamics skewed by Saka’s lack of full fitness. He continues to manage an achilles problem and, the way that Tuchel talked, it did not sound as though Saka would be a starting option against Ghana.“Bukayo is ready and will get more and more ready,” he said. “I think once we go to the last game of this group [against Panama on Saturday week] he will be ready. He was strong in training on Tuesday in small spaces. It was just a matter of if the game [against Croatia] was open and was up and down.”Like Saka, Madueke likes to cut inside on to his stronger left foot. Unlike Saka, he does not appear to trust his right as much. Remember his horrible moment against Costa Rica when he dribbled around the goalkeeper to the right of goal only to take on the finish with his left foot and hit the post? His body shape was wrong.Madueke did go on the outside a couple of times against Croatia to good effect, most notably when he crossed low for Jude Bellingham on the half-hour; the midfielder just could not convert. Madueke’s pace is such a threat. His performance against Croatia gave Tuchel encouragement and food for thought.“All four of the wingers are competing against each other at the highest level,” Tuchel said. “We had some 10 against 10s in training, some finishing patterns, attacking patterns, defensive patterns. Everyone is on but on in such a respectful way that we had some tough decisions to make.“They know we will need them and the time will come when they start. The time will come when they can finish and be decisive from the bench. It is now four more weeks and in four weeks you can swallow it and digest it and buy into it. We selected the group because we were sure that they could do it and they all can.”

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Manager said second-half performance was ‘rewarding’England’s next group game is against Ghana on 23 JuneThomas Tuchel said he wanted his England team to entertain the nation and that he pictured the scenes in the pubs as his players took the handbrake off to power past ­Croatia 4-2 in their World Cup opener on Wednesday.England were passive in the first half, too deep, the connections lacking. They entered the interval at 2-2, Harry Kane’s goals cancelled out by a pair of soft concessions that were in keeping with the team’s openness.But England exploded into life at the start of the second half, Jude ­Bellingham’s surging run and finish in the 47th minute the spark for an extraordinary period of pressure. Tuchel had told the players to calm down during the interval, not to worry about the result and be true to their way of playing.After Bellingham’s goal, they had seven clear openings leading up the hour, albeit they could not take them. Croatia were rocking and Tuchel knew the pubs in England would be the same. Croatia had a couple of moments when they might have equalised before the England substitute Marcus Rashford sealed the win in the 85th minute after a clinical counterattack.It is unclear whether a gung-ho approach will lead to World Cup glory, but the performance has ignited a sense of possibility and Tuchel is keen to harness the momentum. England’s next game is against Ghana on Tuesday.Tuchel was asked whether fans could expect England to take the handbrake off during the tournament. “It is what the boys did in the second half – exactly that,” he said. “It is good. That is what needs to be done. Nobody can guarantee the outcome, but we can guarantee the effort.“Can we expect more of that? Yes. It is good and it is rewarding. Hopefully everybody enjoyed it. And it brings a connection. I had a thought in the second half: ‘People in the pubs will like this.’“I was sweating, but that is a good watch where we created and ­created and went for it and won another ball and then a second ball. That is why you are in a pub and watching together on a big screen to get emotional and hopefully we can transmit that.”Tuchel’s frustration with England’s first-half performance was rooted in how they dropped too deep out of possession, seeking to protect the 1-0 lead that Kane’s early penalty had given them. It was a classic England move – or failing. Tuchel wants to see only aggressive, front-foot football.“We just dropped way too early into a deep block,” Tuchel said. “From a middle block … way too early into a deep block. Normally if we go to a middle block it’s not a problem. We have clear triggers to go out of it into a high press.“We wanted to have John Stones pushing into midfield [from central defence]. They blocked John with their No 9 so maybe they also knew or it was a coincidence. It took us a while to understand that Elliot [Anderson] can then push [from central midfield].“So we lost a bit of confidence, couldn’t find the right triggers and we had the feeling that we have to protect something. We ended up too deep and too passive. In the second half, it was much better. We were much more active and aggressive.”Tuchel said the conditions inside Dallas Stadium were a challenge, despite it being a domed air-conditioned venue, and that Stones had “cramps in both legs in the end”. The defender has not played many matches since early December. Kane also suffered cramp in the dressing room afterwards but is understood to be OK. Declan Rice intends to soldier on despite hamstring and lower-back discomfort.“We saw the [physical] numbers – the players really put a shift in,” Tuchel said. “They said it was quite humid and difficult to digest it so I think John was just like everyone else … everyone was very tired in the dressing room, which I like because then I know that you did something. And we need this. Overcoming the tough moments, sticking together.”