‘Let children watch football, write an excuse for school’: Tuchel’s humorous appeal to parents as England book WC pre-quarters berth

ATLANTA: Following England’s win over DR Congo that took them into the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinal stage, the Three Lions manager Thomas Tuchel expressed that parents should let their children watch football and “write an excuse for school”.

A late-stage Harry Kane masterclass, with goals in the 75th and 86th minutes, sunk DR Congo, who dominated a large chunk of the match after Brian Cipenka’s opener in the seventh minute. Now, they will be travelling to Mexico for their round of 16 clash at the iconic Azteca venue against Mexico, scheduled for Monday.

On being asked about children being able to watch such an important match and risking their sleep and school schedules in the process, Tuchel said during the post-match presser, as quoted by a video from Sky Sports, “Write an excuse for school and let them watch football. Come on, there’s so much school to go to, but the World Cup is every four years. Let them watch. There will be a big, big match on in in four days and we need the support of of of everyone and especially of the children”.

Thomas Tuchel wants the kids to skip school #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/znkkKxny5Z

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 1, 2026

Kane etched his name deeper into FIFA World Cup history by overtaking Brazilian legend Pele’s World Cup goal tally as his late brace inspired a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory over Congo DR. With his two strikes, he has 13 FIFA World Cup goals, one more than Pele.

Also, he surpassed Geoff Hurst (4 goals) for the second-most FIFA WC knockout goals for England, with five. Only Gary Lineker (six) has more FIFA knockout goals than Kane. However, Kane (13) has surpassed Lineker’s overall tally of 10 goals. “I’m proud of the group, proud of the boys,” Kane said after the match, according to ESPN. “We spoke before the game about how difficult this game would be.”

“You are coming up against a good team who defend and watch really well. They were dangerous in the counter attack, as we saw in that first 20 minutes of the game. So we had to just grind a win out, and I thought we played some really good stuff after 25 minutes of the game,” he said.

“Their keeper made some incredible saves, to be fair to him, and you start to think maybe it’s just one of those days. But that’s where I’m most proud of the boys and myself as well, just to keep the belief, keep getting the ball into the right areas, and you know one of us will have our hero moment, and thankfully for me it was today,” he added. (ANI)