Thomas Tuchel believes England have the confidence to beat Spain in Madrid on Sunday as he prepares to put his tactics to the test against the European champions in their final Nations League group match.
England need a positive result to finish top of the group, but Tuchel has made clear that he is more interested in seeing his players impose themselves on Spain than simply avoid defeat.
The manager has described the fixture as a test of how far his team have progressed since their 3-2 loss at Wembley in September.
The match is also an opportunity for England to measure themselves once more against the strongest side in international football as Tuchel begins to shape his team for Euro 2028.
“It’s not a must-win game if you go to Spain,” he said. “But the mindset is important. Beating Croatia so we could have this match was the first step and now it’s important that we play with the same mindset that we played at home [against Spain] – attack them, try to make it a physical game, impose our strength. And we will. I’m very confident about that.”
Tuchel believes England had enough opportunities to win the first game at Wembley. They recovered from an early setback to take a 2-1 lead and were in a strong position before conceding twice to lose 3-2.
“Once we got our energy going and played with this for the equaliser for 1-1, we were strong,” Tuchel said. “Harry [Kane]’s penalty was maybe the key moment for us because we were very strong then and deserved to be 3-1 up.
“It would have been very difficult for Spain to come back against us. We had too many big individual mistakes in our own half on the night.”
Spain have also shown that they can be vulnerable. Tuchel said their Nations League victory over Croatia in Split, where they conceded several chances before Mikel Merino scored an 88th-minute winner, was an example that they can be beaten.
“But honestly, if you deeply look into the [Nations League] matches … Spain had some crucial ball losses against Croatia [in Split] and got away with it,” he said.
“They conceded some big, big chances and still managed to win in the end [with an 88th-minute Mikel Merino winner]. So no one is unbeatable. We’re full of confidence. It’s exactly what we wanted. We feel that we have something to take that we lost the last time.”
Tuchel was under pressure during the September international break after the criticism that followed the World Cup exit. His mood has since improved and he sounded confident when asked whether England had made significant progress since the summer.
“Yeah, I think we’re there,” Tuchel said. “We’re ready to win on Sunday. I know what it takes and while no one can ever guarantee it, I think it’s the moment to check how far we are.”
