Thomas Tuchel rejected any suggestions he was frustrated with England’s 0-0 draw with Ghana and warned a similarly tough assignment is to come against Panama on Saturday.
England started the World Cup with a superb 4-2 triumph over Croatia last Wednesday but were brought back down to earth in Boston by a dogged Ghana outfit.
Ghana defended impressively and England were only able to create a flurry of chances late on as Nico O’Reilly headed against the crossbar and Harry Kane blazed over from close range.
Tuchel told BBC Sport: “No, not frustrated. I saw it coming. I knew it would be a difficult game. I hardly saw a team defend so physical and so committed like Ghana did, so give credit to them.
“It was difficult to break them down, we needed to be patient, to be precise, to commit and be brave, but you can never for one second open spaces for counter-attacks. We conceded only two and they were very dangerous so we were very aware of that.
“I think at the end of the halves we grew into it, we were pushing and pushing, I liked the attitude, we needed a bit of luck, we had enough shots, we had enough crosses, we had enough set-pieces to score the first goal, we had a chance with Harry and it is what it is.”
Kane only had three touches in the opposition box and struggled to get free from the shackles of Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, who was deployed in a man-marking role.
Ex-Chelsea boss Tuchel cut a calm figure at full-time, though, and felt England did enough to warrant three points ahead of Saturday’s final Group L fixture with Panama.
“Of course it’s very difficult because if he drops short, they take care of it with the six. It was basically 10 against eight because they left our centre-backs more or less alone and the spaces around Harry were very tight so yeah, a tough battle but it’s no concern now,” Tuchel said.
“He had one chance that he normally never misses and he missed it today. It is what it is.
“It will not be the first match like this. Respect also for our group and the difficulty of our group. Even the third match against Panama, even if it’s maybe not the most known name, they were very good against Ghana and it will be tough.”
