German Thomas Tuchel, head coach of the England national football team, confirmed early Sunday that his side were lucky after narrowly beating Norway 2-1 after extra time to reach the semi-finals of the 2026 World Cup. The angry Tuchel was not in a mood to celebrate after Jude Bellingham's goals secured the second win for the 'Three Lions' after falling behind in a tense match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The German said in a pitchside interview moments after England's victory: 'We made things very, very difficult for ourselves today, but the result is fantastic. Reaching the semi-finals is amazing. I'm not happy with the performance, the commitment is there, but our style of play made things very difficult for us. We played randomly with a lot of caution, and the pace was not enough. We were lucky today.' Tuchel stressed that his team need to improve if they want to progress further in the tournament, saying: 'We need to improve. Now it's time to celebrate, to live in the moment. We have three days.' Referring to the semi-final match next Wednesday. When asked on ITV after the match, in which he was the savior of the 'Three Lions' by scoring both goals, Bellingham responded to Tuchel's comments: 'Yeah, well, it doesn't matter. It's tough on the pitch. It's a draining match. All the players played a strong game. My thoughts and appreciation go to the players on the pitch who put in a great performance.' When these comments were re-posed to him in the press conference, Tuchel replied: 'No one doubts that,' referring to the heat and effort. He continued: 'I admire the work the players did, their efforts, their self-belief, their ability to overcome difficulties, to cling to hope, and to find ways to win. This is truly at the highest level, and they will never receive enough praise for that, but I am also a football coach, and I believe we can play better. In general, I don't think it was a very high-level match. We have performed better before.' Emphasizing his point of view. He also answered a question about England's first goal that came after the ball touched a camera cable, saying: 'There is a chip inside the ball, it can tell you if even a hair touched it, as we know since the Croatia-Portugal match. It is supposed to be able to tell you if that happened. I wasn't aware of it, and I didn't see anything.' Tuchel heaped praise on Bellingham, saying: 'A world-class performance from a world-class player. In very big and decisive moments, he was at his absolute peak.'