Thomas Tuchel's Journey: From Chaos in Mexico City to Euro 2028

In the chaos of Mexico City, with 10 men clinging on against the tournament co-hosts, something snapped for Thomas Tuchel – in the best possible way.

His team had just dragged themselves through a wild 3-2 knockout win, a result soaked in noise, heat and sheer disbelief. When the final whistle went, the pressure, the fear, the doubts all blew away. What was left was pure euphoria.

Tuchel wanted to bottle it.

"I texted a friend after the match and I just wrote, 'I regret that I didn't eat some grass after the match to keep something from this in my body forever,'" he recalled in an official FA interview with Daniel Sturridge. "That was the feeling. That was the moment."

It sounds absurd, almost comic. But it tells you exactly where his head was: desperate to hold on to a night that felt bigger than just a result.

A broken arm, a united squad

The match itself was dramatic enough. The aftermath said even more.

As the players celebrated, Jordan Henderson tumbled over an advertising hoarding and broke his arm. The mood could have turned in an instant. Instead, it revealed something Tuchel values even more than tactical control.

"This game had so much of what you could wish for," he said. "If you needed any proof of what it meant to these players and how they were with each other, it was the moment when Jordan fell over and broke his arm.

"Within a second, the players were there. Every single player was there stopping the celebrations, building a shield, protecting Jordan – not going nowhere, in full empathy. It was just so special."

No one drifted away. No one carried on posing for the cameras. They formed a human wall around their injured teammate. In Tuchel’s mind, that was the night the squad stopped being a collection of individuals and became something far harder to break.

From one night to a new era

That bond, forged in the noise and dust of Mexico City, now underpins everything that comes next. Tuchel doesn’t talk about that game as a one-off. He talks about it as a starting point.

"It created a huge bond to these players," he said. "It feels like they are my players now. This is the beauty of it. You have success and you have painful moments together, but you have so much time together and then you create a natural bond.

"So I'm happy to see them. I'm happy to challenge them, happy to push them, and very proud to be a part of that."

This is the culture he wants to carry into Euro 2028: a group that has already lived through extremes together, that has scars and memories, not just caps and appearances.

Eyes on Euro 2028 – and the road through Nations League

Tuchel’s gaze has already moved from Mexico to the next mountain.

"I'm very excited. I think we got another step closer and I think we're there," he said. "It's very difficult to prepare for a World Cup in the US, but I think it's possible to prepare for a Euros and we prepare in Nations League Tier One."

The numbers from their American adventure back him up. Ten matches. Eight wins. One draw. One painful defeat that still nags at him. A record that, in his view, gives this group the right to walk into the next phase with belief.

"The target is to have another 10 matches. We had 10 matches in the US – eight wins, one draw, one painful loss. That is something to build on. We all have the right to hold our heads high and go with courage and positivity into the next challenges.

"We have four matches in Nations League coming up, and that's where the focus is."

No talk of “rebuilding”. No suggestion of starting again. For Tuchel, the story that began with a frantic 3-2 win and a broken arm now runs straight into Tier One Nations League fixtures and on towards Euro 2028.

The question is no longer whether this team can handle the chaos of nights like Mexico City. It’s whether that same ferocious togetherness can carry them all the way to a trophy on European soil.