Spain legend Iker Casillas branded England 'cowardly' after they were knocked out of the World Cup in the semi-finals by Argentina. Thomas Tuchel's side were aiming to reach a first World Cup final since 1966 and were on top when Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock shortly after half-time.
England's defensive collapse
But the Three Lions decided to sit back after that in the hope of seeing out a narrow win, allowing Argentina to launch wave after wave of attack. Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez scored an injury-time winner to send Argentina, the reigning World Cup champions, into another final.
Tuchel is set to face huge scrutiny over his in-game management, with England's approach not dissimilar to the one often seen under former boss Sir Gareth Southgate.
Casillas criticises approach
Legendary goalkeeper Casillas, who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010, believes England only have themselves to blame after their 'cowardly approach' against Argentina. 'England score the goal and then sit back – cowardly approach,' the former Real Madrid star posted on X. 'They haven't left their own box and have allowed Argentina to come forward more. The logical outcome happens.'
'England lost the match all by themselves with that approach. They let Argentina do whatever they wanted. That can't happen. The final will be incredible.'
Sutton calls it a 'coaching catastrophe'
Ex-England striker Chris Sutton also criticised Tuchel after the Three Lions' heartbreaking exit, saying it was a 'coaching catastrophe' from the German. 'That was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel,' Sutton told BBC Radio 5 Live. 'The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative.'
'Defending deep and putting more and more defenders on, it's quite a simple game football, you have to get up the pitch. You can't expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina had. It's all on the coach where I'm concerned. He made the changes.'
'He was negative, so the question which I'm going to ask is how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this team forward? I don't care what anyone says, England have had a generous run in this competition and they have not played well in one 90 minutes.'
'A World Cup semi-final, there's a big opportunity to get over the line against an average Argentina side and they didn't look average in the last 30 minutes, far from it, but I think England helped them with that. I think that was a coaching disaster.'
'There certainly needs to be questions asked about Thomas Tuchel. Looking at the game and the way the game turned that was down to his coaching. He was so super negative when he should've been positive. He could've been more positive with his substitutions.'
'You had Ollie Watkins and Marcus Rashford on the bench. And why not take Harry Kane off when he was looking like a passenger? He's got a lot of questions to answer.'
Argentina's final opponent
Argentina's reward for a comeback win over England is a place in Sunday's World Cup final, where they will play European champions Spain.
