England manager Thomas Tuchel praised his squad after a 4-2 victory over Croatia in their World Cup opener in Dallas on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
Harry Kane scored twice in the first half, while Jude Bellingham added a goal early in the second half.
Marcus Rashford, who came on as a substitute for Anthony Gordon, scored the final goal.
Kane's Leadership
Kane's two goals tied him with Gary Lineker as England's top World Cup scorer with 10 goals.
However, Tuchel highlighted a defensive block Kane made against Josko Gvardiol in extra time.
“If you see the commitment of our captain, of our No 9 in the extra time, to block a crucial shot after a set-piece with all his body and his commitment to buy into a defensive action like this then you know everything about his performance today,” said Tuchel.
The manager added that Kane is in excellent physical and mental shape. “A complete performance.
Absolute leader. He's all in.
Physically, mentally. It's the full package at the moment.
He wants it and he leads by example, so we're very happy,” said Tuchel.
Bellingham's Impact
Bellingham started in the attacking midfield position over Morgan Rogers and became the youngest European player to appear in four major tournaments at 22 years and 353 days old.
“You can rely on Jude in these moments. He loves these pressure games.
That brings out the best in him,” said Tuchel.
Tuchel explained that the decision to start Bellingham was influenced by his integration into the team strategy over the preceding 17 days.
“It's an easy decision to let him play and trust him, also because of the last 17 days how he bought into the idea of team spirit, the idea of brotherhood and the idea of how we want to play football which is a slightly different position to his position in Real Madrid,” said Tuchel.
The manager acknowledged that leaving Rogers out was difficult.
“The tough decision was to say to Morgan Rogers he will not start because he deserves 100 per cent to start and he did ever so well for us and me,” said Tuchel.
Tuchel emphasized that the victory was a collective effort. “We do this as a team.
The team and every player is ready to do it as a team.
We can just do it together as a group if we want to push it all the way and today was a very good first step,” said Tuchel.
Rashford's Return to Form
Rashford ended a scoring drought of one goal in his previous 15 international appearances after scoring late in the game.
Tuchel expressed satisfaction with his impact.
“I'm very happy for [Rashford] that he got this relief and I hope he stays hungry for the next one and the next one because he was absolutely impressive through the last 17 days and really deserved his goal,” said Tuchel.
The manager revealed a conversation with Rashford prior to the match.
“We had a talk yesterday, where I told him I was very impressed with how he was in camp, how he pushes on the field,” said Tuchel.
Rashford has been competing with Anthony Gordon while adapting quickly to tactical instructions.
“He's totally invested in every meeting, he's very fast in translating a meeting onto the pitch what we want tactically, he pushes on a respectful level with Anthony Gordon on the position,” said Tuchel.
According to Sky Sports, Rashford spent the second half of the domestic season on loan at Barcelona before joining the national squad.
“At the moment he's in a very good place,” said Tuchel.
“I was so happy he was the one to unlock this long spell where he was not decisive for us from within the game and hopefully he can keep this up,” he added.
