Kane reveals Tuchel's half-time 'lose our way' speech that sparked England's Croatia comeback

Harry Kane has revealed that Thomas Tuchel told England to play without fear at half-time during their 4-2 World Cup opening win over Croatia, urging his players not to be afraid of losing if it meant losing on their own terms.

England twice surrendered the lead in the first half before a dramatically improved second-half display sealed the victory, with Kane, Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford all getting on the scoresheet.

Gary Neville, commentating on the match, suggested Tuchel had “given them an absolute rocket at half-time” and that the players “were blasted”. Kane’s account confirmed the intensity of the interval address, but also pointed to a liberating message from the German coach.

“He just said if we lose, we lose, but don’t be afraid and if we lose, we lose our way,” Kane said after the final whistle.

The England captain credited the shift in mentality for the second-half display. “I think without the ball we went more aggressive. It was difficult — they’ve got great players. When Luka is dropping in and you’re trying to figure out who to pick up. In the second half we’ve got that extra gas and if we see a man in front we go. Just the intensity we went at, I think that’s our biggest strength.”

Kane added that once England took control, they never looked threatened. “The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counter-attack. We had a spell where we could have scored three or four.”

Neville returned to the theme after Kane’s post-match comments, noting that assistant coach Anthony Barry had also been visibly frustrated at the break. “Anthony Barry was fuming at half-time,” Neville said. “That shows what Thomas Tuchel’s thoughts were. Harry Kane said it was a speech. No doubt he would’ve been telling the players it wasn’t good enough in the first half.”