Tuchel draws on Dortmund's Anfield nightmare to prepare England for Azteca cauldron

Thomas Tuchel is leaning on one of the most painful nights of his managerial career — Liverpool’s stunning Europa League comeback against his Borussia Dortmund side in April 2016 — to ready England for the hostile atmosphere of the Azteca Stadium ahead of their World Cup last-16 tie against Mexico.

Dejan Lovren’s last-gasp header completed a 4-3 victory for Liverpool at Anfield that night, overturning a 3-1 deficit from the first leg. Dortmund had been on the verge of going through twice, only for the Kop to drag the game away from them. Tuchel has not forgotten it.

“I clearly remember moments in games where you feel like, okay, the stadium is on you,” Tuchel said. “I had the experience in Liverpool in a European match with Dortmund where it was just like the Kop just sucked the balls into the goal. We were clearly through and we conceded three late goals and it was just coming — you could just feel it.”

The England manager believes that kind of experience, shared across his squad, is precisely what will be needed in Mexico City. Mexico have lost only two competitive home games at the Azteca this century and have not conceded a single goal across their four matches at this World Cup, all played at altitude.

“We know what it takes to calm a crowd down,” Tuchel added. “We have the experience and every one of our players loves this and are fully aware it is an iconic moment. They will worship it and it will bring out the best in them, I’m sure.”

Tuchel also acknowledged that England have struggled with the discipline of their press in the tournament so far, warning that impatience in the high line has left them disjointed at times. He said the squad have worked specifically on picking their moments better and staying compact, pointing to a tendency for players to press too early and out of sync — a habit Mexico’s quick-starting attack would be well placed to exploit.

“We go too early. We go when we’re not set. We are impatient,” he said. “It has knock-on effects — the first one goes too early, the second one joins, no-one says ‘no no no we don’t go’, the third one just goes and wants to repair it, and this leaves us disjointed.”

With Mexico yet to concede and playing in front of a fervent home crowd at altitude, Tuchel is under no illusions about the scale of the task — but frames Anfield, of all places, as the template for how his side can stay composed when the noise threatens to overwhelm them.