Tuchel demands England prove their progress in Spain test

Thomas Tuchel has told England they must show they can overcome the biggest teams when they face world champions Spain on Sunday.

The match at Riyadh Air Metropolitano will decide the group leaders, with Spain unbeaten in a record 43 consecutive matches. Spain previously defeated England at Wembley in the UEFA Nations League.

Tuchel said England must approach the game positively and rely on their own strengths rather than allowing Spain’s reputation to dictate the contest.

“It is a huge stadium and an exceptional occasion. We are facing a team that has forgotten how to lose, so we must first produce a performance at the highest level. If we do that, it will give us a major psychological boost,” he said.

“A win cannot be taken for granted when you play Spain away from home, but I believe the mentality is extremely important. We won today, which makes preparing for this match completely different from how it would have been if we had not won.”

He added: “That was the first step. Now it is important to play with the same mentality we showed at home, attack them, try to make the game physical and impose our strengths on the opposition. That is what we want to see.

“No-one can predict the result of a football match, but it is important to show the mentality we are talking about, together with the fighting spirit. We will do that. I am completely confident we can.”

England’s hopes at the World Cup were ended by Argentina in the semi-final after they dropped deep and lost the initiative. Since then, they have beaten France in the third-place play-off, lost 3-2 to Spain at Wembley, defeated Czechia and thrashed Croatia 7-0 in Rijeka before beating Slaven Bilic’s Croatia again at Wembley on Thursday.

Tuchel believes England have made “big steps forward since the summer” and reached the final they had been targeting, increasing the pressure surrounding Sunday’s meeting.

“We have to go beyond our limits and find out where we really stand,” said the Germany manager. “We all feel we deserved a better result in the first match, so we want to recover what we lost in the second.”

“I think we have reached the required level and are ready to win on Sunday. I know what it takes, and no-one can guarantee the result, but this is the right moment to test how much progress we have made, go beyond our limits and prove our project can succeed.”

Tuchel accepts Spain’s quality can be intimidating but insists they are beatable. He said the Wembley game had been close, with Harry Kane missing a penalty when Spain led 2-1 and England had a genuine chance to recover.

England made several costly individual errors in their own half in that match, Tuchel said, while Spain had also made decisive passing mistakes against Croatia without being punished. Spain allowed Croatia to create numerous dangerous chances but still won.

“We need an exceptional performance,” Tuchel said. “We are very confident and continuing to improve. I believe we have reached exactly the stage we wanted, and feel we have a chance to recover what we lost in the previous meeting.”