Thomas Tuchel Reflects on England's World Cup Victory Over Mexico
Thomas Tuchel says one thought nagged at him after England’s wild World Cup win over Mexico in Mexico City: he wishes he’d eaten the grass.
England, down to 10 men and under suffocating pressure, somehow dragged themselves to a 3-2 victory over the hosts in last summer’s last-16 tie – a performance already being talked about as one of the national team’s greatest away days.
The run would end in semi-final heartbreak, but that night in the Azteca heat has stayed with Tuchel in a different 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 wasn’t just the scoreline. It was what happened when the final whistle went.
As England’s players sprinted towards the away end in delirium, Jordan Henderson vaulted an advertising hoarding, landed awkwardly and broke his arm. The mood flipped in an instant.
Tuchel watched what followed and saw something deeper than a celebration.
“This game had so much of what you could wish for,” he said. “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.
“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.”
That reaction, the instinct to close ranks around a fallen teammate rather than bask in the glory, has become Tuchel’s reference point for this England squad. He talks about it as the night the group truly became his.
“It created a huge bond to these players,” he said. “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.”
The challenge now is to turn that emotional high into something lasting.
Euro 2028, which will be co-hosted by England, looms on the horizon, and Tuchel wants the spirit of Mexico City to carry into qualifying and beyond. He believes the World Cup in the US, where England played 10 matches – eight wins, one draw and one “painful loss” – has already shifted the team up a level.
“I'm very excited. I think we got another step closer and I think we're there,” he said. “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.”
Those next tests arrive this month. England host world champions Spain in the Uefa Nations League, then head to Croatia and face the Czech Republic home and away during a packed international window. Tuchel will name his squad on Friday.
The grass in Mexico City is long gone. The feeling he wanted to bottle isn’t. The question now is whether that bond, forged in the chaos of a 3-2 epic, can carry England through another brutal cycle of knockout football.
