Thomas Tuchel has hit out at the standard of World Cup refereeing and fears their mistakes could send England home at any moment, as he hailed the spirit of his team following their historic 3-2 win in Mexico.
The Three Lions boss and assistant Anthony Barry were involved in heated exchanges on the touchline at the Azteca Stadium during a night of high drama. They rowed with officials and opposition staff amid the decisions to send off Jarell Quansah and then award a penalty against Harry Kane.
And Tuchel said: ’The referee can send any team out in any moment. It’s just not good enough. It’s erratic, it’s unreliable in matches. Now we have two fourth officials who just scream at you if you put one foot out of a coaching zone. It’s just not good enough.’
Australian referee Alireza Faghani did not penalise Quansah or Kane in real time but changed his on-field decision after pitchside reviews. Earlier in the tournament, VAR was intervening far less.
Tuchel added: ‘We give everything and then decisions are overturned in a very questionable way. But it’s not only about the big decisions, the little decisions, the consistency in the decisions.
‘You’re just out there, it’s like almost on the open sea, in front of the court, you don’t know what’s going to happen. They’re just not on the level.
Thomas Tuchel has hit out at the ‘erratic and unpredictable’ standard of World Cup refereeing
England heroically held on to beat Mexico 3-2 after multiple decisions went against them
Tuchel fears mistakes from refs and VAR officials could end up sending England home
‘You play high level now. You need highest-level refereeing. It’s just not good enough for the players, for the game.’
Tuchel doubts the merits in warning his players to be mindful of a lower bar for VAR intervention during the knockout rounds.
‘Do you really think that Harry in this moment thinks, “Oh, VAR!”,’ said Tuchel of the penalty incident, for which Kane was adjudged to have kicked an opponent’s foot when attempting to clear the ball.
‘He just goes to the ball and there’s a contact – it’s a contact sport! We cannot look at stills and think, “Oh, contact, penalty”. You don’t give a foul and then you go to penalty. You don’t even give a foul and then you go to a red card. It’s just not good enough.’
England now face Norway in the quarter-final in Miami on Saturday, and Tuchel believes the nature of the win in Mexico City has given his players the confidence to go all the way.
‘It fuels our belief that we are here to stay,’ he said. ‘We are in a part of a tournament, round of 32, round of 16, where you just need to find a way to stay in the tournament, you need to find a way to win. We will stay with the motto, step by step, and game by game. But of course, matches like this, you can only win them with belief, and it will just fuel our belief.
‘We have a top team, there’s so much to love about this team. I think coaching is always necessary and we try to help them through these moments, and there was a lot not going in our favour, there was a lot going against us. But they just hang in there, they just refuse to give in, it’s very, very good.’
