Kane, Tuchel, Bellingham & Rice speak after England beat Croatia 4-2 in World Cup opener

Harry Kane, Thomas Tuchel, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice speak after England beat Croatia 4-2 in their World Cup opener.

It took just 12 minutes for England to go ahead, Noni Madueke got first to the ball, but Luka Modric swiped his leg, referee Clement Turpin pointing to the spot.

Harry Kane’s penalty was saved, but Josko Gvardiol had encroached and the keeper, Dominik Livakovic, was off his line, meaning the spot kick had to be taken again. Kane stepped up a second time, without a stutter in his run up this time and put the Three Lions ahead.

On 42 minutes, Declan Rice with a corner sent in, Harry Kane was there to head it into the net, timed to perfection.

Then Croatia’s Petar Musa levelled the scoreline with the last kick of the half, a well worked goal with a cool side foot finish.

England assistant manager Anthony Barry told ITV reporter Gabriel Clarke at half time: “A complicated and confusing first half from us, really.

“From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.

“Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns, and yeah… we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.

“We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment that would allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we concede the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at half time.”

“I think a lot of nervous energy early on. Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.

What a start to the second half, as Jude Bellingham made his way down the right-hand side and placed the ball into the bottom corner across the face of goal and in off the post.

Shortly after that, England had so many chances to extend their lead, Nico O’Reilly attempting to head the ball into the corner from Rice’s corner, only to go wide.

Then Declan Rice aimed for the top corner, but forced a superb save from Dominik Livakovic, Croatia with their keeper to thank with other blocks in a unreal 10 minutes.

On the 86th minute, England then made it 4-2, a statement performance this, brilliant football, Croatia left stunned with Marcus Rashford rounding off a good team move.

England head coach Thomas Tuchel said to ITV, as per BBC Sport’s live blog: “Good reaction, the first half was a bit complicated for us. It was a bit nervy. The decisions we took, we chose to go safe and go backwards. We struggled to find any rhythm and didn’t have the confidence to go through the gaps.

“I saw a statistic of 33% of ground duels won in the first half and 73% in the second, so even off the ball was not good enough, not committed enough. I loved the reaction of the players in the second half. It was emotional; there were a lot of emotions involved. It took us a while to get going.

On what he said at half time: “Even if we lose, it will not change my perception of the last 17 days but let’s do it our way. We were too focused on protecting the result. We were a back seven and we didn’t defend. If the result doesn’t go our way, we want to play our way. I tried to encourage them to go for it.

On Jude Bellingham: “A very good player, he deserved to start and that’s what he needs to do to fight for his place.

On Declan Rice being withdrawn: “Let’s see. I hope they’re OK. I would never take Declan out normally. We were not very clean when we won balls. We learn a lot from these moments. We are exhausted but I loved exhausted players in the dressing room. It’s pressure, it’s the first game of the tournament.”

England’s Harry Kane said to ITV: “I thought it was a game of two halves. First half, we were OK. Really disappointed to concede in the way we did, I thought we dropped off. Credit to the manager, he gave us a speech at half-time and said if we lose, we lose in our way and I think we saw that in the way we came out in the second half. We went full gas and they couldn’t live with it. Credit to everyone for the first game of the tournament.

“Without the ball, we went a bit more aggressive. It was difficult. They have players like Luka Modric dropping in and you’re trying to figure out who to pick up. The intensity we want at, it’s our biggest strength and we’ll have to use that more.

“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.

On Jude Bellingham: “Great goal, great run, great finish. You can see the desire from Jude in training. The competition is high-level. Whoever plays is ready and you saw Jude is itching to get out. Fantastic goal.”

Kane said to BBC Sport: “That’s the level we know we can reach. First half was a bit more even, I still thought we had some moments obviously scoring two goals. The goals conceded were a little bit disapppointing by, especially the second one how deep we were, that is not us or the team we want to be.”The boss said at half time ‘let’s go’, up the tempo, go man for man and completely take the game to them, and that is exactly what happened. You saw us at our best level, both with and without the ball, we could have scored three or four goals in that 20 minute spell in the second half. We did what we needed to do and finished the game off nicely at the end.”

On his penalty: “When I watched the clips I saw he [Livakovic] likes to move early, so I knew that there was a chance that if I did the stutter that he would come off the line. I was 80% sure that it was off the line, I wasn’t 100% sure, then obviously when it got retaken I changed the technique a little bit. This is all why I do the research, and in the end it worked out nicely for me.”

Kane on his goalscoring form: “I don’t know about invincible but I am feeling at my best level, at my peak, it was important to start the tournament well. In the first game you want to get on the board as a striker for sure. Coming into it, having to wait six or seven days and watching all the other games I think everyone was itching to get out there, me included, so it was nice to start with the win today.”

On his role in this England team: “We have different ways of playing. Sometimes you see me playing higher up the field but today it was about the overload in midfield and it worked really well at times. For teams that like to pick up man to man in midfield it is not always easy for the centre backs to follow me into those deep areas but that will change.

“I am more than capable of playing in midfield and playing on the half turn, driving up the pitch, arriving in the box later and creating chances that way. Me and Jude [Bellingham] work well together, him running in behind for his goal today was top level. You had Anthony and Noni doing it as well, and then the guys that came onto the pitch raised the level even higher and we had too much for them.

On the early running for the Golden Boot : “There’s a few good players up there who have scored so it is nice to be in and amongst it right now.”

England’s Jude Bellingham said to ITV: “The second half especially, we showed what we’re about and the team we want to be. I think the first half, we were still a bit nervous and cagey. With the ball, we rushed a bit but in the second half, we created a nice rhythm and you saw the best of us.

On Thomas Tuchel at half time: “It wasn’t one of those where it was a big drama or standing up and shouting; it was what the team needed. We have a mature group with great leaders in there; everyone knew the level we had to get to. The start of the second half gave us a great platform.

On the build-up to his goal: “I don’t remember all 23. I remember Elliot’s was brilliant, Noni was trying to take it off my toe but no chance. The work that goes into creating that sort of play is obviously one that takes us weeks to get right. Credit to the manager and his staff, they’ve put us in the right place to take those chances.

“My responsibility to the team and my country is to give everything I have when I cross the line and wear that badge on my front. I want to give everything I can, it’s been a long season for me; I’ve missed more camps than I’d like.

On the second half: “The second half was more than flashes, in my opinion. The constant level of intensity without the ball was top level; the substitutions that came on were unbelievable. The pressing from the front, we hit the marker there.”