Thomas Tuchel Reflects on England’s Epic World Cup Night in Mexico
Thomas Tuchel still can’t quite shake the feeling of England’s wild World Cup night in Mexico City – the night he half-seriously wished he’d taken a souvenir home in the strangest possible way.
“I texted a friend after the match and I just wrote, I regret that I didn't eat some grass after the match to keep something from this in my body forever,” the England manager told former Three Lions striker Daniel Sturridge in an interview for the Football Association. “That was the feeling. That was the moment.”
It was no ordinary moment. England, reduced to 10 men, stunned host nation Mexico 3-2 in a breathless last‑16 tie last summer, a performance already being spoken about as one of the finest away displays in the country’s history. The World Cup run would eventually stall in the semi-finals, but that night in Mexico City has stayed with Tuchel and his players.
He believes it changed something between them.
Bond forged in chaos
Tuchel talks about that game as a kind of emotional landmark, a night when the spirit of his squad was laid bare. The clearest example, in his mind, came not from a goal or a tackle, but from a moment of chaos in the celebrations.
As England revelled in the final whistle, Jordan Henderson vaulted an advertising hoarding, landed awkwardly and broke his arm.
“If you needed any proof of what it meant to these players and how they were with each other, it was the moment when Jordan fell over and broke his arm,” Tuchel said.
“Within a second, the players were there. Every single player was there stopping the celebrations, building a shield, protecting Jordan – not going nowhere, in full empathy. It was just so special.”
The image stuck: a jubilant team suddenly snapping into protective mode, forming a human wall around their injured teammate. For Tuchel, that instant said as much about his England as any tactical tweak or training‑ground drill.
“It created a huge bond to these players,” he added. “It feels like they are my players now. This is the beauty of it.
“You have success and you have painful moments together, but you have so much time together and then you create a natural bond. So I'm happy to see them. I'm happy to challenge them, happy to push them, and very proud to be a part of that.”
Eyes on Euro 2028
Tuchel now wants to carry that feeling, that sense of shared experience, into the next cycle as England build towards Euro 2028, a tournament the country will co‑host.
The work starts again this month. England host world champions Spain in the Uefa Nations League, a heavyweight fixture that will act as an immediate test of how much that World Cup run has really hardened this squad. They then travel to Croatia and face the Czech Republic home and away during the international break. Tuchel will name his squad on Friday.
“I’m very excited,” he said. “I think we got another step closer and I think we’re there.
“It's very difficult to prepare for a World Cup in the US, but I think it's possible to prepare for a Euros and we prepare in Nations League Tier One.
The target is to have another 10 matches. We had 10 matches in the US – eight wins, one draw, one painful loss. That is something to build on.
“We all have the right to hold our heads high and go with courage and positivity into the next challenges. We have four matches in Nations League coming up, and that's where the focus is.”
The grass in Mexico is long gone. The feeling Tuchel wanted to bottle is not. Now the question is whether England can turn that bond into the kind of ruthless consistency that decides trophies, not just memories.
