Tuchel seeks Wembley roar as England host Spain in Nations League opener
England will host Spain at Wembley in their Nations League opener on Saturday night, the first post-World Cup fixture for both teams, and manager Thomas Tuchel has pictured the stadium singing Oasis’s Wonderwall after a win. Asked if the song would play again after the match he said: “Do I think it will happen tomorrow? I think it will happen if we win.”
Wembley is sold out for the glamour fixture but Tuchel warned the emotion of a Nations League match cannot match a World Cup knockout tie and recalled a recent example of a muted crowd. He pointed to the 3-0 victory over Wales at Wembley last October, when England led 3-0 after 20 minutes and he felt the atmosphere became flat. “We had an amazing performance against Wales and I was not so happy with the atmosphere, so everyone killed me for that,” he said. “The stadium is the stadium, the crowd is the crowd. It can be sometimes [like this] in international football … not tournament football. It can be difficult. I want to just say we produced some top performances, especially against Wales, and it was still not what I thought is deserved for the players.”
Tuchel outlined his intent for the Nations League programme as continuity, to build on the positives from the World Cup, with fixtures that also include Czechia (home and away) and Croatia (away). He said he wants to “go all the way in the Nations League, not only to win a trophy but to ensure England will play high-quality opposition into June of next year. It would be the ideal preparation for Euro 2028.” He added that injuries have shifted the dynamics, noting he has only 15 of his players from the tournament and referring to “mixed influences.”
The manager flagged the congestion of the international window, saying England must play four matches inside 11 days — Saturday-Tuesday twice over — with international flights in between. “This cannot be right,” he said, and acknowledged concerns from club managers about injuries while resisting excessive rotation. He warned he does not want to rotate too heavily and added that Harry Kane was “desperate to start all four and there is a chance he will.”
Tuchel described Spain as the current elite, noting their possession game and defensive qualities after two recent finals exposed England to teams that retained the ball. He referenced the World Cup final against Argentina and the Euro 2024 final against England, and raised the possibility of Spain dominating the ball: what would the reaction be “if Spain hogged 65% of possession, played twice as many passes as the opposition and allowed precious little in front of their goal?” He praised their defending and passing, calling them “masters in delaying” opposing attacks and saying they “push you to wide areas from where they can initiate their press.”
The manager said a strong performance may matter more than the result as he seeks to translate training quality into matches. “Yes, of course, everyone does … performance gives you a better chance for results, 100%,” he said. “I’m the first one to say that we need to play better. Remember my interview after the Norway game [in the World Cup quarter-final]? I see the quality of our training and we are working on that translation on to the pitch. We are strictly looking only at the performance. We need to get it right. But I get what’s expected from us. We try to deliver.”
Tuchel described a players’ meeting on Tuesday — the first collective discussion since the World Cup — in which one theme was their disappointment at how they performed against Argentina. He questioned a simple narrative about how they should have played: “I’m not so sure if I believe the narrative: ‘If we would have gone out attacking and attacking, then it would not hurt so much,’” he said. “I have done attacking and lost finals. I have done defending and lost important matches. It hurts like hell [either way]. I know what they mean, of course. I admire their honesty and desire. We try together when the next big pressure moment comes … to encourage everyone to go on the front foot and not to fall back and protect something. It is easier said than done because the high pressure comes in the high pressure moments”.
Tuchel must now field his best team for Saturday’s Wembley meeting with Spain and try to deliver the performance he says is required.