A moment paid for dearly: Tuchel reveals the behind-the-scenes of England's collapse against Argentina

The German coach is still in shock

A documentary charting England's 2026 World Cup campaign has seen German manager Thomas Tuchel defend the controversial defensive changes he made during the semi-final defeat to Argentina.

Tuchel owned the switch to a more defensive system and explained his reasoning. He admitted, though, that the timing was wrong.

England led 1-0 until the 85th minute. Then came a shock, Argentina scoring twice to win the 2026 World Cup semi-final 1-2.

Two months on, the collapse still haunts him.

"You can try to kill me here, but this is my scar, not yours," Tuchel said in the documentary.

He never delivered England's first World Cup title since 1966, and the British press pinned much of the blame on him for those cautious tactical calls.

Speaking to RMC SPORT, Tuchel added: "No one is in more pain than me, and no one wants to win more than me. They can torment you endlessly and think: 'If you had made other changes, we would have won the match.' But you don't know that."

Even so, he conceded he may have gone defensive too soon, blaming England's mounting fatigue across the tournament and Argentina's late equaliser for the call.

"Of course, we could have made attacking changes," he continued. "No one knows what would have happened, we could have done that, and perhaps we would have lost 2-1, and people would ask: 'Is he crazy? He finished the match against Norway with five defenders, so why didn't he finish it with five defenders (against Argentina)?'"

Tuchel went on: "I believe, based on what I saw, my experience, the information available to me, and the level of recklessness Argentina showed, successive changes and constant attacking substitutions, that this was my solution to the problem. This is the essence of the coach's intervention. I try to help; we don't do anything out of selfishness or anything like that. We are just trying to help."

Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock in the 55th minute, but England soon found themselves pinned back, the pressure peaking around a temporary water break midway through the second half.

That was when Tuchel pulled Gordon and sent on defender Ezri Konsa.

"A decisive moment, if I go back and remember what influenced my decisions: we allowed a legitimate goal to be scored right before the water break," Tuchel recalls. "And I said to myself: we won't survive this. This is the end. We aren't keeping possession, we aren't defending well, we aren't defending properly in a 4-4-2. We need help."

He concluded: "I chose a 5-3-2, and we changed our structure. Because I believed we could manage the play better, and we always have three centre-backs at the heart of the defence if the crosses keep coming. Then we moved to a 5-4-1. I even thought: 'We'll get through this.' But it was too early. Too early for that mindset."