Jude Bellingham dismissed Thomas Tuchel 's post-match criticisms of England 's performance despite their 2-1 victory over Norway in the World Cup quarter-finals.
England reached a second semi-final in three tournaments, as Bellingham's brace was enough to edge out a spirited Norway side, who originally took the lead.
Far from England's best performance, it drew a passionate speech of constructive criticism from Tuchel, who hailed his side's mentality but questioned their quality.
Bellingham hit back, calling the match "tough" as the Three Lions now await the winner of the final quarter-final tie between Argentina and Switzerland .
Replays show that England were perhaps lucky to escape with no VAR intervention for their equaliser.
Tuchel's Passionate Criticism
“We made life very difficult for ourselves,” Tuchel began. “The result is fantastic, it's amazing, but we are not happy with the performance.” When pushed for more details, the German simply responded with, “In every sense. Sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough: we were lucky today.”
When asked if it was a mentality issue, Tuchel quickly hit back at ITV's Gabriel Clarke, passionately hailing his players, stating that mentality is what drove the players to success:
"I am not happy. The way we played was sloppy, we did a lot of technical mistakes.
"It is nothing to do with mentality. We need to play better..."
Speaking on Bellingham, who netted another brace after his efforts against Mexico, he called the Real Madrid star "world-class" and claimed he produces "every single match".
Bellingham's Bold Response
When the midfielder was told his manager was not happy with the team’s performance, Bellingham's reply was rather eye-catching. He bluntly said:
“Whatever."
"It’s difficult out there. A tough shift," he added. “Character, perseverance, when things weren’t working we found a way to win a game. We gave it everything we’ve got. So proud of this team.”
Before Bellingham's brace, a first-half strike from Andreas Schjelderup sparked the game into life, as the Benfica attacker fired an effort that toed the line between cross and shot. Regardless, it shocked England into life, who quickly hit back on the edge of halftime.
Bellingham received a smart ball from Anthony Gordon before carrying it into the box and firing low and hard past Ørjan Nyland to bring his side level. However, England had to be saved by VAR in the early knockings of the second half as Torbjorn Heggem's goal was ruled out following a foul by Erling Haaland on Elliot Anderson.
The 23-year-old midfielder grabbed his second to settle the tie early into extra-time, netting his sixth in this tournament format, which is more than Zinedine Zidane managed across his World Cup career.
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