16 Conclusions: England win the 2026 World Cup under Thomas Tuchel
The 60-year wait is over thanks to Thomas Tuchel; England have beaten Germany 1-0 to win the 2026 World Cup.
We’ve got 16 Conclusions on Tuchel’s genius, his Harry Kane call, cap waving, Reece James and Lee Carsley’s legacy.
1) In case you’ve forgotten, this was the Daily Mail headline when Thomas Tuchel was appointed:
‘A DARK DAY FOR ENGLAND: Three Lions gamble on a GERMAN… but Tuchel only has 18 months to prove it’
This is their front page tomorrow:
‘RUHR BRITANNIA: Honorary Englishman leads Three Lions to victory over the old enemy’
F*** them.
2) The thinly veiled xenophobia continued unabated through the qualifying campaign, during the tournament and reached a quite extraordinary climax on the eve of the final, as talkSPORT-peddled nonsense ran amok on social media, with one claim of many being that Tuchel may have pangs of doubt at leading England to victory over his home nation.
Those people should have turned off their TVs as the non-England-for-the-English England fans sang ‘He’s One Of Our Own’ and Tuchel roared with delight and punched one hand into the other when Bukayo Saka snapped into a challenge.
Those people should not have been allowed to watch Angel Gomes dictating the game, Cole Palmer’s double nutmeg or Harry Kane’s winner. Those people should be made to work instead of enjoying the national holiday with the rest of us. Those people should not be allowed to celebrate England winning the World Cup.
3) “He’s Harry Kane.” A blunt answer to a question Tuchel has been consistently asked throughout qualification and the tournament. Seen as the scourge of attacking fluency and effective counter-pressing, Tuchel has persisted with the England captain despite increasing media and fan pressure to make a change.
While not reaching the goalscoring heights of his time under Tuchel at Bayern, when he scored 44 goals in 45 games, Kane is comfortably the Three Lions’ top scorer under the German, scoring 10 in 15, and while Liam Delap is the heir apparent, there is no England player – and this is the basis of Tuchel’s simple point – more likely to finish that chance.
4) The irony of the Phil Foden for Anthony Gordon clamour in 2026 has been almost entirely lost on those imploring Gareth Southgate to make the opposite change at Euro 2024. The World Cup-winning goal is precisely why Gordon is playing on the left, despite him playing no part in the move.
While Foden can’t help but try and get involved in everything, drifting off the touchline to clog up the space in which Jude Bellingham and Palmer operate, Gordon stayed very wide and very high. It meant Joshua Kimmich spent a huge part of the game looking over his shoulder, and although Gordon was caught offside three times in the first 45 minutes, he also darted in behind to create a couple of half-chances – one for Kane, one for Palmer – and completed three dribbles, all of them on the outside of the full-back.
The chalk on Gordon’s boots created the space between Kimmich and Antonio Rudiger that was exploited by [insert name of as yet unknown star left-back here], as well as Bellingham and Palmer who continually made underlapping runs on both sides of the pitch.
5) The assist from Palmer was his 20th of the season for club and country, which when added to his 23 goals and general starring role for a Chelsea side that won the FA Cup and were in the title race until April, puts him right in the running for the Ballon d’Or, not that that achievement would be met with more than a shrug from a footballer laid back to the point of being horizontal.
It was his trademark chop that made the goal. Having had an attempted cross blocked moments before by Rudiger, he feinted to do the same on the byline and with the Real Madrid star then on his backside, Palmer looked up and saw Kane 12 yards out, slid the ball into the striker, who rifled his shot first time into the bottom corner. He’s scored a proper England goal now.
6) We all became weirdly obsessed with playing The Best No.10 In The World as a No.10 after three seasons of Bellingham as a box-to-box midfielder at Borussia Dortmund and a season at Real Madrid as a false nine. He’s at best third in the England No.10 pecking order behind Palmer and Foden, and Jack Grealish would have something to say about that.
But he is a magnificent central midfielder, one of the best if not the best in world football. Tuchel made the change immediately and Carlo Ancelotti followed suit at Real Madrid. He saved his best England performance for the biggest game of his life, winning the most tackles (4), completing the most dribbles (5) and playing that sublime outside-of-the-boot pass through to Palmer for the goal, having intercepted the ball to start the move.
Bellingham’s always been a Big Game Player for the Three Lions, but having been a moments man, he is now perennially involved and surely now – if it wasn’t already clear – the England captain-elect.
7) For those of you too deliriously happy to have heard Sam Matterface’s commentary of a moment that will be replayed over and over, perhaps covered in beer in a Boxpark or shouting and screaming with loved ones, we’ve got it here for you. He’s no Kenneth Wolstenholme.
“From the streets of Walthamstow, made in North London, thriving in Bavaria, Herr Kane to them is Mr England to us and while it’s not over yet, it may soon be.”
A glorious moment ruined and then somehow made worse by his football-loathing co-commentator Lee Dixon saying, straight off the bat: “There’s still 20 minutes to go, Sam.” FFS.
8) The day after Tuchel was announced as the new England manager, sage pundit Danny Mills came up with a novel concern over his appointment.
“Often we see him in a hoodie and a cap on the sidelines. Will that be his managerial stance as an England manager? That’s not really something that we’re used to. It’s really always a suit and looking very, very smart.”
Fast-forward 641 days and Tuchel was stood cap in hand while the majority of 40,000 England fans waved theirs above their heads and serenaded him with Three Lions, emphasising one line in particular. They’re not hurting anymore.
BUY HERE: Football365 Thomas Tuchel England hats
9) Reports of a rift between Tuchel and Levi Colwill predictably resurfaced when the German was announced as the new manager. It was claimed Tuchel barely spoke to Colwill after he returned to Chelsea from a successful loan spell at Huddersfield Town, leading the defender to make another temporary switch to Brighton.
That move was arguably the making of Colwill, who has since thrived back at his boyhood club and is now being heavily linked with Real Madrid, having turned down Liverpool last summer after consistently excellent displays under Enzo Maresca.
Tuchel made pointed reference to Colwill’s versatility both back in January 2025 when he took official charge of the squad and again after the group phase win over Senegal, in which the 23-year-old gave a solid display at left-back.
But he’s far more accomplished at centre-back and stepped in with aplomb following the cruel injury to Jarrad Branthwaite in the semi-final win over Argentina.
There was one early nervy moment as he got his legs in a tangle to allow a Kai Havertz shot, but the Arsenal striker barely had a sniff after that, with Colwill also moving and passing out of defence with typical style.
10) “I don’t want to talk about specific players,” Tuchel said after his second game in charge, the 2-1 friendly defeat to Brazil in March 2025, but it didn’t take much to read between the lines. “They were very dangerous on the left. It is impossible that we give Vini [Vinicius Jr] this much space. The whole team needs to defend better.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s only competitive start since came in the group stage dead rubber against Paraguay and here, as Reece James hobbled off the pitch with what looks like another hamstring problem, it was Tino Livramento who was introduced with 10 minutes to go.
James had been excellent in the World Cup final and has been brilliant under Tuchel in general, playing – as he always has – as though opposition players are little more than a nuisance. His task here was to keep Jamal Musiala under wraps: no mean feat giving the Bayern star’s four goals and three assists before the final. But James wasn’t buying the feints or body swerves, and used his own formidable frame to send Musiala flying on at least three occasions.
He and Bukayo Saka have built quite the relationship on that flank, with one of them going wide while the other inverts, the ball seemingly on a string between them.
11) Someone get Lee Carsley on the blower; we’ve got him to thank for Angel Gomes. What a player.
Tuchel may also have unearthed him but we have our doubts, given his inclusion in Carsley’s first England squad as caretaker boss came as a surprise to almost everyone, including those who quickly combed stats sites for insights into his flying form for Lille after leaving Manchester United.
Tuchel does though deserve credit for seeing through Gomes’ dip in club form after the 25-year-old returned to Manchester United for £60m last summer. Brought in as the Ideal Partner for Kobbie Mainoo following the Manuel Ugarte debacle, Gomes has struggled, particularly following Mainoo’s season-ending injury, which has seen Casemiro and Christian Eriksen play the majority of games since the turn of the year.
There were doubts after his first introduction to international football as to whether Gomes could cut it against the big boys. That notion was all-but dispelled in the quarter-final win over Spain and firmly put to bed here as he kept a firm lid on Florian Wirtz and made more passes into the penalty area (4) than anyone else on the pitch. Again, cheers Lee.
12) The stick frequently used to beat Southgate, particularly at Euro 2024, was his lack of in-game management. Tuchel had won 34 of 43 knockout games before he became England manager, largely because of his ability to tweak formations and change tactics in real time.
We saw that in action in the semi-final. When the wingers were getting no joy he switched to a back five with Saka moved to left wing-back, which granted Foden and Palmer space as the inverted wingers and led to the winner, with Foden dropping deep and finding Palmer with the through ball.
He took Kane off straight after his goal here, replacing him with Ollie Watkins, who stretched the pitch and was fouled three times to eat away time, and could so easily have put the game beyond doubt after a one-two with club-mate and fellow substitute Morgan Rogers in what would have been an identikit version of their winning goal in the Europa League final had Watkins put the ball inside the far post rather than just beyond it.
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13) John Stones came on for Bellingham and sat in front of the back four, making it a back five at times by dropping to play between the centre-backs.
Germany had just three shots after England’s goal as Tuchel condensed the central areas, boxed them in when they went wide and – crucially – had an outlet to relieve potential pressure that barely arrived. As was the case in Chelsea’s Champions League win in 2021, Tuchel’s side looked incredibly comfortable having taken the lead.
They dropped back into their shape but it never felt as though their backs were against the wall and they continued to carry as much of a threat as their opponents despite defending being the name of the game by that point.
14) “I just want to enjoy the moment,” Tuchel said after the game, damp from champagne with a smile on his face. The reporter was desperate for his thoughts on the now-vacant Manchester United job after Gareth Southgate was sacked at the end of the season.
It does seem like a natural progression, not least because exactly the same change led England to international football’s biggest prize. There’s also arguably no better time for Tuchel to take a job his counterparts are reasonably steering well clear of, what with the dodgy recruitment and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s false promises. A Premier League title win in 2028, was it lads?
The United fans are all now desperate for a manager a huge portion of them now adore, he would be granted time because of what he’s achieved with England and, perhaps most importantly, Tuchel’s confidence must currently be through the roof.
He will be backing himself over anyone else to take the tenth-best Premier League team to the title in two years and if he doesn’t, he won’t care, Tuchel can stroll out of Old Trafford with his reputation intact having provided further evidence that it’s an impossible job at a clown car of a club.
15) Southgate must have mixed feelings right now, particularly after his failed foray into club management. But we mean it when we say England would not now be dancing around the World Cup in the MetLife stadium dressing rooms were it not for him.
The players needed the heady highs and crushing lows of his four major tournaments and two finals to get them to this point; the fans did too. He made them fall back in love with watching their country again and laid the platform for a superior tactician to get them over the line. We hope he’s enjoying a beer or three with the rest of us.
16) England have won the f***ing World Cup.
