Norway’s historic run at the World Cup is over. After taking first a half lead over England in Miami through a tricky strike from Andreas Schjelderup, a Jude Bellingham brace sent the Three Lions through to a semifinals date in Atalanta to take Lionel Messi and Argentina. Bellingham struck first right before the halftime interval and then again in the first period of extra time after both sides showed plenty of danger in front of goal throughout the first 90 minutes, though Norway were surprisingly
without Erling Haaland in the second half of extra time as the Manchester City man made way for Crystal Palace’s Jørgen Strand Larsen.
Even with most of them not coming from Haaland, Norway were able to register five shots on target from their total of 13 shots on Jordan Pickford’s goal and they were able to make life difficult and rather uncomfortable for and England side that were the odds-on favorites to win the match without the requirement of extra time. By that same token, many would argue that Bellingham’s second goal came about from Norway keeper Ørjan Nyland making a bit of mistake in spilling out the initial attempt from Djed Spence, who was very lively when he came on.
Despite the win and another chance at the World Cup finals where they were knocked out by Croatia in 2018 in Russia, Thomas Tuchel taking off Declan Rice and Noni Madueke at the halftime break painted a rather clear picture — he was NOT pleased with how things were going. It was a bold move that did pay off in the end, but the previous Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager made it clear that he was not the biggest fan of England’s performance after the full time whistle had gone. His post match rant showed remanence of occasions where he was just as publicly critical of his players during his tenure as Bayern manager.
“We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today. The result is fantastic. We’re in the semi-finals, that’s outstanding. But I’m not happy with the performance. The commitment is there. But we made life very difficult for ourselves, with the way we played: sloppy, with a lot of technical errors, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today. We have to play better,” Tuchel ranted post-match (via Sky Sport).
The togetherness of the current England squad that used to be plagued with cliques and club allegiances and tribalism lends itself to suggesting that the players won’t take anything Tuchel said post-match too negatively, but it will certainly remind Bayern fans of times when he sort of threw the team under the bus after poor results, something Vincent Kompany rarely ever does. In the 2023/24 season at Bayern, Tuchel questioned Bayern’s focus and intensity on a number of occasions and was especially critical after the 3-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena and the 1-0 defeat to Werder Bremen, where he had made comments about the level in training not being good enough in the days leading up to the match.
On the other end of the spectrum, Kompany has made a habit of shielding his players from negative press and falling on the proverbial sword himself. He’s done the same with Bayern’s front office members as he will never speak for them and put out any sort of potential sort of misrepresentation to what really wants to be said and addressed.
For Tuchel and England and Kompany and Bayern, it can certainly be the case of; right person, right time and for Tuchel at Bayern; wrong person, wrong time. Both managers are successful and effective in their own ways, but the optics of what Tuchel has said after the Norway win can be digested two different ways based off of what will happen against Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday.
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