England manager Thomas Tuchel has expressed no regret over his tactical decisions during England’s 2–1 defeat to Argentina in the 2026 World Cup semi‑final, despite criticism that his side sat back too early after taking a 1–0 lead.
Speaking to BBC Now, Tuchel defended his choices and praised his players’ effort:
I analysed the match and I did it a certain way so that’s my responsibility. In the moment, no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very, very close. We deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match in the circumstances.
The team was top, we couldn’t get over the line but no regrets. I think we saw the mentality throughout the match and the strong group.
We played the matches how they were, we played against strong teams in the group, travelled a lot of miles, played at altitude, we played with 10 men, we played in the heat and we overcame every obstacle. We were very close today.
It’s not the moment to analyse the full tournament, we just went out because we lost a crucial match.
Softfootball understands that during the match, England struck first early in the second half when Anthony Gordon converted Morgan Rogers’ cross from close range.
Argentina pressed relentlessly and finally equalized in the 85th minute through Enzo Fernández, who unleashed a powerful strike from the edge of the box after Lionel Messi’s short corner.
