Bellingham Fires Back at Tuchel After England Reach World Cup Semi-Finals
Jude Bellingham scored a brace as England came from behind to beat Norway and book their place in the World Cup semi-finals, but it was a fractious post-match exchange between the Real Madrid forward and head coach Thomas Tuchel that dominated the headlines.
Norway took the lead through Andreas Schjelderup before Bellingham levelled just before half-time in controversial circumstances. Norway coach Ståle Solbakken insisted it was “pretty clear” the ball had struck an overhead cable in the buildup, though Fifa released a statement saying sensor data from the ball showed no evidence of contact. Bellingham then pounced on a goalkeeper error from Ørjan Håskjold Nyland in the third minute of extra time to seal a 2-1 victory. His sixth goal of the tournament moves him level with captain Harry Kane and two behind joint-leaders Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé ahead of their respective knockout games.
England are in the last four for the first time since Gareth Southgate’s run to the semi-finals in 2018 — a significant milestone as they chase a first men’s World Cup final on foreign soil. Follow the latest on our World Cup 2026 hub and check the live standings as the bracket takes shape.
Despite the result, Tuchel made his feelings plain to ITV, saying England had been “sloppy”, made “a lot of technical mistakes” and were “not fast enough”. He concluded bluntly: “We were lucky today.”
Bellingham, according to The Guardian, was visibly unimpressed when asked to respond. “Yeah, well, whatever,” he said, before adding that the conditions and the quality of the opposition — naming Erling Haaland, Martin Ødegaard, Antonio Nusa and Alexander Sørloth — made it a far from straightforward evening. “Sometimes you have to win dirty, and we’ve done that again tonight,” he added. When pressed on whether England were lucky, his answer was simply: “No comment.”
Tuchel later sought to defuse the situation, insisting there was “not 1%” of disconnect between himself and the squad, and that he remained “fully in love” with his players. Kane backed that reading, suggesting the manager’s lingering dissatisfaction was actually encouraging: if England can reach a semi-final while still having room to improve, that is something to take forward rather than worry about.
Norway were also dealt a fitness blow, with Haaland — who failed to score for the first time in a competitive international since October 2024 — taken off in the second period of extra time after picking up a dead leg, Solbakken admitting he perhaps should have substituted him ten minutes earlier.