Thomas Tuchel says semi-final against holders will be a battle of mentality
England must be ready to duel Argentina in a battle of emotions, grit and mentality as they aim for a first World Cup final since 1966, according to Thomas Tuchel.
Jude Bellingham’s exceptional double secured a 2-1 victory over Norway in the quarter-finals and set up a nerve-racking contest with holders Argentina, who are aiming to retain the trophy they won in Qatar in 2022 and deliver a successful final World Cup for Lionel Messi.
Tuchel expects their opponents to be filled with confidence and desire, and to draw them from more than just football, with a quest to forge history also providing some extra motivation.
“I know some of the players, I coached some of the players,” Tuchel said. “I can sense it. You can see it. They have this kind of edge. You can sense it when they’re going a goal down, when matches are tight.
“They’re almost the same group as four years ago. You can see the cohesion, you can see the sacrifice that they put into it. They believe in their style. And their style is a very emotional style. It was in Qatar and it is now.
“And of course history, they are also fuelled by that. They are fuelled by history, it means a lot to them. So this is what we basically expect, and what we are up against. But we are also emotional, we have the grit, we have the mentality that it takes to go up against it. And we are ready for it.”
Some Argentina players expressed some of those emotions in the dressing-room after beating Switzerland 3-1 in the quarter-finals, singing a song that referred to the Falklands War, Diego Maradona, and Messi. “Las Malvinas, por Diego and por la ultima de Leo,” they sang (“for the Falklands, for Diego and for Leo’s last”).
The Falklands war of 1982 was a gravely contested military affair between Britain and Argentina over a small archipelago in the south Atlantic ocean. Four years after that, in 1986, Maradona scored with an arm as Argentina beat England in the quarter-finals on their way to their second World Cup trophy.
Whoever wins between Argentina and England will face an uphill battle against Spain in the final, after La Roja coldly dispatched highly-rated France in the other semi-final on Tuesday.
