’50-50 call’ between Bellingham and Rogerspublished at 20:30 BST
20:30 BST
England v Croatia (21:00 BST)
England
England manager Thomas Tuchel, speaking to ITV about the feeling arriving to the Dallas Stadium for his World Cup debut: “Amazing, it’s what we worked for. That was the goal, to be ready on that very day. We don’t want to be anywhere else, I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world but here. Let;s go”
On the conditions: “I didn’t see the pitch, but deal conditions to play an intensive match and that’s our aim.”
On the decision to start Jude Bellingham over Morgan Rogers: “Very close. In the end we stuck with the team that started so well against Costa Rica. Both of them deserved to start. We will have these kind of decision. Bukayo Saka had an incredible training session yesterday and deserved to start but we will not start and finish this match with 11 players. We need a strong bench and we have players who can influence and change matches from the bench.”
On if Bellingham’s previous tournament experience influenced his decision: “He looked sharp, he looked happy to be on the pitch. To be proven in tournaments didn’t play a role. Morgan is free from any experience and fresh and ready to go. It was a very 50-50 call and the decision goes to Jude to stay with the same line-up.”
On Croatia: “I expected Mateo Kovacic to start. We have one slight tweak. You cannot read it from the faces and the names. It can be a back five but they can switch to a back four. We need to adapt our press and our attacking but we are prepared for that. We are at the starting line and we let the players go and take the next step.”