Thomas Tuchel says he is not scared of any team at the World Cup as England look to progress to the knock-out phase in style.
The back-to-back European Championship runners-up are among the favourites for glory and underlined their credentials by opening with a 4-2 statement win against Croatia.
Tuesday’s dour 0-0 draw with well-drilled Ghana took the sheen off that victory but England’s four-point tally means a place in the round of 32 is all but assured ahead of taking on eliminated Panama on Saturday.
They need to equal or better Ghana’s result to top Group L and Tuchel is approaching the knock-outs without fear.
“I’m not scared in general,” the England boss said. “We feel confident enough to be ready and compete on any level.
“I haven’t seen that much football, to be honest because the times were always quite early and we’re on the training pitch. Then it’s the afternoon, we’re in the office preparing the next day.
“I haven’t seen that much football – but I’m not scared. I see, of course, good teams. I see high quality individual players who decide team matches. I see all kinds.
“I still see our group as one of the most difficult matches. This is where we go from. We focus on what we can influence.”
Tuchel’s belief in the group’s mentality is as key his confidence in their footballing ability, but the high stakes nature of the World Cup means discipline becomes increasingly important.
The England boss has “no fear” about the players getting wound up and says he liked star midfielder Jude Bellingham standing up for himself against Ghana.
“I think sometimes it fuels Jude from these moments,” Tuchel said.
“He accepts that these moments come and he’s happily engaging in it, because it brings out the edge in him that he needs sometimes to just have these little moments that bring out a bit of the extra in him.
“For me, I was quite close but not involved, everything was in a frame where it’s totally acceptable. We spoke about it at half-time, to be emotional is part of the game, and we don’t want to play cold like a fridge.
“We want to play emotional but not get distracted and not be dragged into discussions and all this stuff, because it will just help the opponent and the underdog.
“We did this well, you cannot play without emotion against such physical teams, because otherwise it feels a little bit like you’re in the role of a victim.
“We want to stand up for each other, protect us and still find a good balance, so he reminded me now to maybe address it again and find this balance. That’s basically it.”
