Thomas Tuchel thanks England fans

Thomas Tuchel has thanked England fans for their support after the Three Lions achieved their best FIFA World Cup finish for 60 years.

England beat France 6-4 in a thrilling bronze final at Miami Stadium to seal their highest place finish since lifting the trophy in 1966 and their best-ever at a World Cup staged on foreign soil.

The Three Lions have enjoyed fantastic support throughout the tournament, both at home and across North America, which Tuchel acknowledged after the game.

“Just thank you,” he said.

“Nothing else to say. Thank you, thank you and thank you.

“[The] support was crazy. Wonderwall was crazy. So emotional, so special.

“After the matches, coming to the stadiums, seeing the fans outside, seeing them in the stadium. Wow, that’s just like [an] unbelievable experience.

“Thank you for that and I promise we will keep on pushing.”

England opened up a four-goal lead by half-time in Miami thanks to Bukayo Saka’s brace and efforts from Declan Rice and Ezri Konsa.

France fought back in remarkable fashion after the break, with Kylian Mbappe netting twice, either side of Bradley Barcola’s strike, to make it 3-4.

Saka extended England’s advantage with a penalty to complete his hat-trick, but Ousmane Dembele made it 4-5 before a solo goal from Jude Bellingham wrapped up the win in added time.

Reflecting on the performance, Tuchel added: “A lot of heart and character and mentality on the highest level, again.

“That was difficult because 72 hours ago we had a very, very painful defeat against Argentina.

“Then you have this short turnaround, then you come against a world class squad. They have a day longer to prepare, we have one day less. We have so many more travel miles because our schedule in the tournament was so much more demanding than theirs.

“And you could see it in the end, we were really, really tired again. But we pushed through this very last task, got the job done, got a medal, first medal since 60 years.

“So, I am full of praise and congratulations to everyone involved, but especially, of course, to the players.”