Thomas Tuchel: England coach vows to stay until Euro 2028 despite losing to Argentina in World Cup semi-final | soccer news

Thomas Tuchel has vowed to lead England to Euro 2028 despite losing to Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals.

England were denied a place in the country’s first World Cup final since 1966 as Argentina came from behind to beat Tuchel’s side in Atlanta.

Anthony Gordon sent England into a dreamland before Argentina took control, while Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandes and Lautaro Martinez broke England’s hearts late on.

Tuchel, who was appointed head coach in January 2025, extended his first contract until Euro 2028 earlier this year. The tournament will be co-hosted by England, Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

When asked directly whether he would stay on after the World Cup, Tuchel said: “We are continuing the contract until the home Euros.”

“I’m looking forward to it, even though it’s difficult to look that far ahead now.”

England will now remain in the United States as they prepare for the third-place match against France in Miami on Saturday. Tuchel added that it was an achievement for England to reach their second semi-final in eight years, despite it being a game they did not want to participate in.

“We have to wait four years (to play another World Cup again). That in itself is an achievement. Of course it’s a semi-final. A lot of great football countries are eliminated before the semi-finals. This is an achievement. No one wants to hear that now, because we are so competitive that we demand maximum effort from ourselves. The nature of being so competitive puts the next game in perspective.

“None of our players, none of the French players want to play in this game. They want to play in the final. We gave everything to get to the final. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but that’s it. We have one less day to recover than France, but we will do it professionally.”

“What we have to do is reflect and react. That’s what you have to do at the highest level of sport and we will do that.”

Kane: “Just holding on against Argentina wasn’t enough”

England captain Harry Kane admitted his attempts to maintain a 1-0 lead backfired as Argentina’s World Cup hopes were dashed by a second-half performance.

“I’m upset,” Kane said. “Once we were up 1-0 we were upset because it looked like we were trying to hang on which is not good enough at this level.

“We’ve worked so hard to be here. The lads have given every last minute, the running, the sweat, the blood, the tears, whatever it is. So to come up short like today is just devastating.”

Kane insisted Tuchel and his staff got the message to keep pushing for Gordon’s goal, but it felt as if England were slipping back further and further, causing Argentina to turn the pressure in their favour.

“We struggled to put pressure on the ball (after the goal),” he said. “I thought we pressed them well, especially in the first half and early part of the second half, especially high up the pitch, which allowed us to win the ball and control the game a little bit better.”

“After the goal, whether they put more players forward or we couldn’t play man-to-man against them, it was just a wave. The lads put in the blocks but in the end it wasn’t enough.

“The players were always ready at any moment during the game. When we got going the message was to go back and get another goal. After they had scored two goals it was about trying to find something but we couldn’t find any momentum to get back into the game.”

Kane added: “We’ve had a lot of good moments in this tournament. We’ve played a lot of good games, made another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We’re almost there. We just need to find the missing pieces.

“This tournament takes that away from you. There’s so much effort, so much pressure, so much mentality. We’ve shown a lot in the last six or seven weeks we’ve been together. We just missed that last piece.”