England to 2026 World Cup semi-finals, Thomas Tuchel: We are lucky!

JAKARTA - England national team coach Thomas Tuchel admitted his team got lucky when defeating Norway 2-1 in the 2026 World Cup quarterfinal at the Miami Stadium, USA on Sunday.

Even though they advanced to the semi-finals, Tuchel judged the Three Lions' performance to be far from satisfactory.

"Today we made it difficult for ourselves. The result is fantastic because we qualified for the semifinals, but I'm not happy with our performance. We were lucky today. We have to play better," said Tuchel as quoted by FIFA's website on Sunday.

England made it to the last four thanks to two goals from Jude Bellingham, while Norway took the lead thanks to a goal from Andreas Schjelderup.

Tuchel insists England cannot afford to repeat a similar performance if they are to go further in the 2026 World Cup.

According to him, the success of reaching the semifinals should not make his team close their eyes to various shortcomings seen when facing Norway.

Bellingham assessed that England's victory was born from the fighting spirit of the entire team who did not give up even though they were behind first.

"Character and persistence brought us through this game. Even when our game wasn't going well, we gave everything," said Bellingham.

The victory over Norway sent England into the 2026 World Cup semi-finals to meet Argentina or Switzerland.