At half-time England were tied 2-2 with Croatia in an open, frenetic game.
Harry Kane had scored twice but Croatia drew level each time, the second in the stoppage time before the break.
But the Three Lions came back out of the tunnel a different side, and after Jude Bellingham had muscled his way into the Croatian mixer and fired his side ahead they largely kept their boots on the opponents’ necks, denying them any further equalisers until Marcus Rashford guaranteed the victory with only a few minutes to go.
England’s captain in America, Kane, said Tuchel urged his players at half-time to play with more freedom.
“He told us to take the shackles off, calm down and let’s go,” the England captain said. “He said: ‘What’s the worst that can happen? Show the world who we can be.’
“We came out in the second half full gas and they couldn’t live with it. That’s the level we have to set in every game. Once we went ahead, we controlled the game well and never really looked in danger.”
Thomas Tuchel himself said his team’s commanding second-half display vindicated his call for greater bravery after what he described as a nervous opening.
“Sometimes if you want to get it so perfectly right, you want it too much and you overthink it,” he said. “We played way too many passes backwards and way too many back to our goalkeeper. It took us a while to find our confidence.
“I told them to calm down and encouraged them to do it our way. I told them my perception of them would not change whatever the result. I wanted them to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot.”
Bellingham added: “It wasn’t one of those [half-time team talks] where it was a big drama or standing up and shouting. It was what the team needed. We have a mature group with great leaders and everyone knew the level we had to get to.”
