Thomas Tuchel said England had taken their first step in closing the gap on the top football nations after edging a 10-goal thriller against France to finish third at the 2026 World Cup tournament.
Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick in an entertaining 6-4 win in the heat of Miami, while France’s Kylian Mbappe became the leading scorer in World Cup history by netting twice.
Tuchel spoke on the eve of the match about the pain of England’s 2-1 semi-final defeat by Argentina on Wednesday, stressing the need to close the gap to the defending champions as well as France and Spain.
The German, who has faced a torrent of criticism from the English media over his cautious tactics in the Argentina defeat, said England had made progress with their win against France.
“We can close it, but they can open it up again,” he told the BBC.
“Eight years ago, they [France] were the champions. Four years ago, they were in the final. There is a slight gap, but no problem. We want to close it.
“I said yesterday, today is the first step to closing it. We did it. We beat them. The next one will be Spain in the Nations League.
“To see a team fight like this gives you energy. The tiredness will come after. We will still feel the pain when tomorrow is the final. This will take a while, but overall it gives me more energy than it takes from me.”
Meanwhile, France coach Didier Deschamps said he had experienced a “truly wonderful adventure” with his players as he bid farewell to the job on Saturday after 14 highly successful years in charge.
Deschamps guided France to World Cup glory in Moscow in 2018, becoming one of only three men to have won it as both coach and player.
He led Les Bleus back to the final in Doha in 2022, where they lost to Argentina in a penalty shootout.
Despite starting the 2026 tournament in North America impressively, France suffered a bitter 2-0 defeat by Spain in the semifinals.
Deschamps reflected that he had had a “beautiful” tournament with his players and staff.
“On a human level, it was a truly wonderful adventure with them,” he said.
“The eight weeks we’ve spent together since the start of the preparations were beautiful.”
On a sporting level, he acknowledged the “disappointment” for a squad that “set out with a great deal of ambition” but came up short.
“We managed to do quite a lot of positive things. We failed in our match against Spain, and they were able to perform at a very high level against us,” he said.
As the 57-year-old prepares to hand over the reins — almost certainly to French legend Zinedine Zidane — Deschamps said he was certain the future was bright.
“There are quite a few young players who will continue to develop, and there’s the talent to keep achieving very good results,” he said. — AFP
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