Miami, July 17: England manager Thomas Tuchel has questioned the relevance of the FIFA World Cup third-place playoff, admitting neither England nor France wanted to be involved in Saturday’s bronze-medal clash after missing out on the final.
Tuchel said the fixture was difficult to embrace as every player enters the tournament with only one objective.
“None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match. They want to play the final. We gave everything to achieve that. Everyone plays to win the World Cup,” Tuchel said.
He added that England would approach the game professionally despite having a day less to recover than France.
While disappointed with the result, Tuchel defended England’s World Cup campaign, insisting that reaching the semi-finals should not be overlooked.
“We’ll have to wait four years before participating in another World Cup. Reaching the semi-finals is already an achievement. Many great footballing nations are eliminated before the semi-finals. It’s an achievement, but nobody wants to hear that at the moment, myself included, because we’re very demanding of ourselves,” he said. (Agencies)
