Tuchel reveals real reason behind Declan Rice substitution in ‘lucky’ England win

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12 July 2026

Thomas Tuchel admitted that he sacrificed

Declan Rice

at half-time so

England

could be more attacking in the second half of their

World Cup

quarter-final against

Norway

Rice and ineffective winger

Noni Madueke

were substituted at half-time of the 2-1 win against

after extra-time that sealed a semi-final clash with

Argentina

for the

Three Lions

Arsenal star

Rice

had been struggling with illness in the build-up to the contest in Miami, while he’s also been battling a hamstring issue.

Indeed, the 27-year-old missed

training and was isolated from his teammates after being struck down with a sickness bug.

When asked why he took Madueke and Rice off at half-time,

Tuchel

told

talkSPORT

: “I wanted to have Bukayo on the field to finish it. I was not happy with Noni’s performance.

“It was just a one-on-one and we wanted to get a bit more offensive. I took the decision when we were 1-0 down.

“I didn’t want to take it back just because of the goal. I wanted to send the signal that we become more offensive. So we needed to take one midfielder off.

“We knew that Declan was struggling. He gave a green light to continue maybe until the next water break, but then I thought if we go 120 and I don’t have Elliot on the field, we will get into trouble in substitutions later.

“So we took a hard decision and took Declan off then, which paid off because Elliot could play the full 120, otherwise we would have been in trouble.”

Tuchel, meanwhile, admitted he was not entirely happy with the performance from his

players., although their mentality can never be questioned.

The German added: “A bit of mixed feelings [on the performance]. Part of me is incredibly proud of the players and the group and the mentality again and the team spirit to overcome adversity and so much switch of momentum in this match.

“We never stopped believing and we never stopped believing and taking care of things. Substitutes again were fantastic with their impact.

“There’s another part at the moment that I thought the game was not on the highest level from both teams and I think we could have done better in many moments.

“I have to find a balance for that because I don’t want to spoil the party of course and still a big part of me is a football coach. So I think it’s my right to not be 100 per cent happy with the performance.”

He added: “[We were] lucky in certain moments. I think lucky in the moment at the end of the first half where we had a crucial ball loss, we were 1-0 down.

“That’s what I mean, lucky to not be 2-0 down suddenly. Then we were kind of lucky even if the decision was the correct decision.

“You need luck to have a goal overturned and taken away from the opponent. Those are crucial moments and we got lucky in these moments. That’s what I mean. I think there’s nothing wrong in admitting that.

“I still think that overall we deserved it, no doubt about it, but it took us a long way and we created quite some problems for ourselves.”

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