"It doesn't matter": Jude Bellingham sharply rebukes his national team coach Thomas Tuchel

After England's hard-fought qualification for the World Cup semi-finals at the expense of Norway (2-1 aet) on Saturday in Miami, Thomas Tuchel criticized his team's performance, saying they "were lucky," which displeased two-goal scorer Jude Bellingham.

“We really, really made things difficult for ourselves today. The result is fantastic. To be in the semi-finals is incredible, but I am not satisfied with our performance,” the England team manager told FIFA.

“We were lucky today. We need to play better. The commitment is there, but our style of play made it very, very difficult: we played sloppily, too cautiously, not fast enough, not efficient enough. We need to improve. But for now, it’s time to celebrate and savor this moment. We have three days ahead of us,” he added.

Interviewed on ITV after the match in which he was the savior of the Three Lions with a brace, Jude Bellingham responded with annoyance to Thomas Tuchel's comments.

“Yeah, well, whatever. It’s tough on the pitch, it’s a grueling match. All the players put in a grueling performance. My thoughts and appreciation go to the players on the pitch who delivered a superb match,” he said.

When pressed about these various statements in the press conference, Tuchel elaborated: "Nobody questions that (editor's note: the heat and the work). I'm impressed by the work they've put in, by their efforts, the fact that they believe in themselves, and by the fact that they've overcome adversity, that they've persevered and found ways to win; it's truly top-level."

“They will never receive enough praise for that, but I am also a football coach and I think we can play better. Overall, I believe it wasn’t a very high-level match; we have already performed better,” insisted the German coach.

When asked about England's first goal, which came after the ball appeared to hit a television cable, Tuchel replied: "There's a chip in the ball that can tell you if a hair touches it, as we've known since Croatia-Portugal. It should be able to tell you if that happened. I wasn't aware of it, I didn't see it."

After the match, FIFA indicated that the sensor on the connected ball had shown no change in its "pulsation" and that there was "no evidence" that the trajectory of the ball had been altered.

England, who are back in the semi-finals of a World Cup after 2018 (eliminated by Croatia), will face either Lionel Messi's Argentina or Switzerland on Wednesday for a place in the final.