England came away victorious in Thomas Tuchel’s second match in charge of the Three Lions as Harry Kane, Reece James and Eberechi Eze scored against Latvia at Wembley on Monday
Thomas Tuchel has admitted England were fortunate to not see Jude Bellingham given his marching orders for a second yellow card against Latvia. The Three Lions boss replaced the midfielder quickly after his star avoided a red card in the World Cup qualifier.
England came away 3-0 victors in Tuchel’s second match in charge, but underwent a difficult spell when only Reece James‘ impressive free-kick separated the sides. With the home side unable to break down their opposition at Wembley, frustration appeared to grow.
That saw Bellingham send Raivis Jurkovskis sprawling in the second period but, fortunately for England, referee Orel Grinfeld kept his cards in his pocket. Tuchel did not waste too much time before replacing the former Borussia Dortmund ace with Phil Foden.
The England boss did cast doubt over whether Real Madrid star Bellingham should have received his first caution, but conceded his side were lucky not to see a worse outcome.
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“Was the first yellow a yellow?” Tuchel said following the game. “Yeah?
“I’m not so sure. We were a bit lucky and took straight away the decision to not take the risk and take him off.”
The former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain head coach accepted it could have been a defining moment of the game.
“The second goal gives you freedom,” he added. “We expect to win.
“If it’s 1-0, anything can happen. We had a situation with Jude Bellingham that reminds us all that everything can be upside down. I was very happy with the attitude from the bench. I’m always a little bit nervous.”
Ahead of Monday evening’s match, Tuchel had spoken about his desire to see discipline from Bellingham and his senior England peers. The German national wants to see efficiency from his key players.
“I think that he is always ready to give everything, and I think we need to help him within a structure that he can play more economically and still have the same impact, or maybe even more impact,” Tuchel said.
“But we need to make sure that the leaders – and he’s one of the leaders – and the key players play in the same rhythm and help each other out, to play a little bit more disciplined, maybe to save some energy for the decisive moments.”
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