{"id":758260,"date":"2026-06-24T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/758260\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:03:09","slug":"tuchel-tells-england-fans-not-to-lose-belief-while-ghana-fume-at-penalty-decision-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/758260\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuchel tells England fans not to lose belief while Ghana fume at penalty decision | England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Tuchel has dismissed suggestions England were handed a World Cup wake-up call after being held to a goalless draw against Ghana<\/a> and called on supporters not to lose belief in his side.<\/p>\n

The substitute Nico O\u2019Reilly came closest to breaking the deadlock four minutes before the end of normal time when his header struck the crossbar, with Harry Kane blazing the follow-up over. But Ghana were full value for a point and might have won if the Honduran referee, Said Mart\u00ednez, had ruled against Ezri Konsa after he appeared to bring down the substitute Prince Kwabena Adu inside the England<\/a> penalty area during the second half.<\/p>\n

Tuchel admitted frustration at England not being able to find a goal after having almost 80% of possession but refused to panic given they have an opportunity to finish top of Group L if they defeat Panama in New Jersey on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need a wake-up call,\u201d the manager said. \u201cEveryone is alert and everyone is fully committed. There can be no doubt. I can assure that to everyone else. There was no overconfidence in our game. Not at all. If there was anything, there was maybe in some moments a bit of over-cautious.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is. But we have four points out of two matches and still a match to play. And we are able to win our last match and we will try to win it, of course. It is very important that the highs don\u2019t get too high and the lows get not too low. And today is not a low, it is just a difficult match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he understood the disappointment of some supporters after England\u2019s excellent performance in the 4-2 win over Croatia<\/a> in their opening match, Tuchel said: \u201cIt\u2019s a long tournament. The boys tried everything. They played with the right energy. I know it\u2019s a very different game. Sometimes, in this case, one team tries to play and run against this deep block. You don\u2019t find the spaces and it\u2019s difficult for you to create chances. It can be difficult to watch. It\u2019s not as exciting as two teams trying to win it in a more open game. We always try to entertain our fans but it takes two to tango.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the fourth major tournament in a row in which England have drawn their second match \u2013 starting with a 0-0 draw against Scotland at Euro 2020. Kane was also upbeat about the result despite failing to move ahead of Gary Lineker in England\u2019s all-time list of World Cup<\/a> finals scorers.<\/p>\n

Harry Kane player profile<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a great position,\u201d the captain told the BBC. \u201cI spoke before about major tournaments: you chunk it up into two separate tournaments. First is the group stage, making sure you get through, and hopefully we can finish with a win and finish top. And then comes the second tournament, which is the knockout stage. We\u2019ve almost done part one. We recover now with a quick turnaround and look forward to getting back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ghana manager, Carlos Queiroz, felt his side deserved at least a point for their \u201cbravery, courage and perseverance\u201d and was adamant they should have been awarded a penalty for the foul on Adu.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n

Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might have been better than us in the first half but we were better than them in terms of fighting spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had opportunities to win it in and I\u2019m not sure if VAR is still working. It was a clear penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United also revealed he exchanged heated words with Jude Bellingham at half-time after the Real Madrid player\u2019s late challenge on Jerome Opoku.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intention was to tell him to cool down with that tackle,\u201d he said. \u201cHe swore and that created a bit more tension. But it\u2019s just football \u2013 he had one word that carried a bit of fire but we are professionals and we were able to cool down. This isn\u2019t dancing where you wear tuxedos, it\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel has dismissed suggestions England were handed a World Cup wake-up call after being held to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-758260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}