England assistant Anthony Barry expressed frustration at a ‘fearful and nervous’ first half against Croatia, before the Three Lions responded by instantly regaining the lead after the break.
Thomas Tuchel’s side had twice led in the first half through Harry Kane, but were pegged back on both occasions with Martin Baturina and Petar Musa scoring for Croatia.
Prior to the second half beginning in Dallas, Tuchel’s assistant was critical of England’s display in an interview with ITV.
Barry stressed that England had fallen back into ‘fearful’ patterns on both occasions after going ahead and that it was a subject addressed with the squad at half-time.
‘A complicated and confusing first half from us, really,’ Barry said.
‘I think a lot of nervous energy early on. Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.
Thomas Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry revealed their frustration at England’s first half display against Croatia in a direct half-time interview
England scored within two minutes of the restart through Jude Bellingham to suggest the half-time team talk had an impact
England enjoyed a dominant start to the second half, before sealing a 4-2 victory late on
‘From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.
‘Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns.
‘And yeah we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.
‘We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment that would allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we concede the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at halftime.’
Just minutes after Tuchel’s long-time assistant had given the interview, England had gone back ahead for the third time.
Jude Bellingham had been sent clear down the right wing, before superbly driving into the box and finding the bottom corner of Dominik Livakovic’s net.
England then enjoyed a long period of dominance and were unfortunate not to have extended their advantage further.
The Three Lions would seal a 4-2 lead late on after substitute Marcus Rashford fired into the bottom corner with five minutes remaining.
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