Football Daily - England lose to World Champions Spain at Wembley - 5 Live reaction

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

Aaron Paul is joined by Ian Dennis, Matt Upson, Paul Robinson and John Murray as World Champions Spain came from behind to beat England 3-2 at Wembley in the Nations League. Defensive errors cost England and an opportunity missed after Harry Kane hit the crossbar after Jude Bellingham won a penalty after being brought down in the box. Hear reaction from head coach Thomas Tuchel who says there were too many big individual mistakes and one of the goalscorers Anthony Gordon.TIMECODES:02:10 On the whistle reaction 06:30 The bench  09:40 Thomas Tuchel  12:50 Mentality  17:50 Anthony Gordon 21:30 Jarell Quansah

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This is the Football Daily podcast with Aaron Paul. And the world champions extend their world record undefeated run to 39 matches in a game that swung one way and then back the other. But it was ultimately Spain who came out on top. And England will ruin the missed penalty from Harry Kane when he rattled the crossbar that might have taken it out of Spain's reach. But Spain came back. at 2-2 and then Oia Sable with a winning goal 16 minutes from time and England for the first time since 2013 have lost back-to-back matches at Wembley Stadium.

It is finished in this Nations League opener in A3 an entertaining game England 2, Spain 3. Elsewhere in A3, Czechia have been beaten this evening by Croatia goals from Luca Modrich and Marco Pasolich and Marco Pazilich. in Croatia a 2-1 win away from home. England of course on the road next up we will be with them on Tuesday night as they go to take on Czechia coverage beginning on 5 live sport from 7 o'clock will be with them throughout this extended international period because then they travel to take of Croatia. That's Saturday night 5 o'clock kickoff at live on 5 live sport and then return back on to home.

So Tuesday, October 6th, England welcoming Chequier to Wembley. My name's Aaron Pothway. You also get the thoughts of Paul Robinson and Matt Upson. Gentlemen, I mean, do you want to just sort of, you know, have it open-ended? What would you like to say? What are your thoughts after that defeat? Because there are so many positives that we could take and that there are negative. It's peaks and troughs, Paul.

Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's two sides to that England performance. There's the susceptible England defensively. and looked to have defensive problems and looked vulnerable every time that Spain went forward on the back foot, left players open, gave away far too many chances. But saying that, two of Spain's three goals came from individual errors that could have been avoided.

And England looks so good on the front foot and going forward in the final third what they created and the players that they have, when they got the confidence back from suffering that blow of the early goal, going one behind, you could see it really rocked this England side. And it rocked them for a good 15, six, 16 minutes in this game and it took them a long time to come back into it and they played the way back into it

Thomas Tuka would take a lot of heart from the way that his team played the way back in and they got the self into this game and for large periods of this game they were the dominant side they dominated possession they had the territorial advantage but they didn't create enough to go on and win a game Spain's then quality came through and England's Achilles heel again was shown at the back but what Thomas Tuka will take from this is that his side have got heart they've got fight but once again we're talking about a 90 minute performance, a 95 minute performance. They were good and probably the better team for large spells of that game, but not over the whole game. Can I just draw sort of attention to what's going on in the pitch right now? You see the Spain squad coming through.

The subs, the coaching staff, welcoming the players back into the dressing room. You look at England, it's sort of like a semi-melancholic trudge around Wembley, led by Harry Gain, and it feels like he said, lads, we have to do this. and he's dragged him over to the far side. Wembley's near enough empty on that side. They've been over to the southwest corner, have the Spain players. But they're together.

And we mentioned a united. They're a force. And no matter what the highs and lows were in this game, Matt, they were resilient Spain. And we will talk about England, of course. But the world champions just turned it on when they needed to. At this level, the little things really count. And I think if you were to step inside their camps,

say at start before training, or at the beginning of training, they'll all do rondo boxes. There's are unbelievable, Spain. If you pass the ball the wrong side, it gets cut out, and it gets noticed and it gets flagged, and it's like the detail that they have and the standards that they push and they press, I think is phenomenal, and it's why they're the best in the world.

And I think looking at that as an example, I think you can learn a lot from how they operate, and the value they put on those kind of things and you saw it in the game every now and then. And Robo's alluded to the fact that England had those surges, like the Anthony Gordon adrenaline rush moments, which were brilliant. And I think we looked at threat,

and it had character, it was bold. So a big tick in a lot of those boxes. But then you start to peel back to those little management situations in the game where that little bit of fine detail matters. I thought we got pulled out of position big time in terms of the back forward, two centre back, I thought Gahirhi had a funny game which had really good one-on-one moments

that came out on top on quite a few occasions but then just was a little bit a yard or two out and against these guys you'll get punished and England did and that for me was the difference in the game. I think that management side of the game is huge when you play a team like Spain. I don't want this to be the football moment and it's not going to be the football moment because there were some exceptional bits of play there from England in terms of you look at the the direct nature of the running. Bacaya Saka, fabulous every time I got on the ball. Really energetic, vibrant, caused them problems

when he was cutting in on his left and able to cause those issues. Did we see enough of it? Maybe not. But again, signs. But what I want to see more of is the boring stuff. Not the high-opt-tane stuff. I think we delivered that today.

But then all those little things like Rodry conducting that midfield, the safe side passing that he has doesn't give the ball away. A couple of times he gave away start of the second half, really uncharacteristic and England nearly scored. But most of the time is moving it, it's just, it's so precise and measured

and the movement off it and the out of possession. They're just a little rung up in terms of organisation and ability to do that and then the subs change. The subs were massive for me. They really impacted the game. And Spain's again,

just kicked on and actually elevated that team for that 10, 15 minute period. We've bumped into a Gooden. Let's be honest, we've bumped into a Gooden. That England performance tonight would have been enough to put any game to bed. And the long spells of pressure and ascendancy that they actually had.

But we've come into a side, once again, we spoke so often tonight about England's record about the top 20, about the top 10. Once again, we've come up against the Gooden and fallen short. And there's nothing more highlights that than the bench. Thomas Tuchel's in-game changes.

affected the game in a negative way. They lost the flow, they lost their feeling, and the forward thinking, all of a sudden, they were sitting deep, allowing spain possession, and once they got in the ascendancy, the quality that they've got, the two substitutes that they made, I mean, a goal and two assists between them. Sorry, two goals and an assist between them.

And that's a huge difference when you look at the bench and you look at a manager who's able to make that kind of an impact on a game. My pal, Spike texts me through the game and said, it looks like they won the World Cup yesterday, in terms of the fluidity of the movement, the way they do things with such effortless sort of, you know, it's just beautiful in place. It's poetry.

Whereas at points we look cumbersome, but again, when we direct and England pushed forward and they attacked, again, Anthony Gordon, excellent, get your head down, go for it and be a bit selfish and show your star quality. And players tried to show that, but there were mistakes in places. Absolutely, because we're athletic, we're powerful, we've got good, we've got top talent. There's absolutely no doubt in that. But if you're going to start to look at the elements of a team, you can see why Spain are the best in the world.

If you think about it, England would be, at international level, if you make the mistakes that England did with the Gahey and O'Reilly that led to Spain's first two goals, at international level, regardless of the opposition, you will be punished. on a positive side, I think that Thomas Tuchel will be encouraged by seeing elements of what he wanted from the players. And that must be more offensive than the World Cup to impose a Premier League style. And what they've done tonight, they've achieved more than what Portugal, France, Belgium and Argentina did against Spain at the World Cup by really giving Spain a good game of football and scoring two goals in the process. And missing a penalty. And missing a penalty. So it is fine margins. I wouldn't be surprised if Tuchel uses that word, fine margins,

not taken away from the fact that Spain with the fine margins could have already been 2-0 up. They had taken the chances they're created in the first half. Taking my pundits hat off now and sitting there in Wembley as a fan, I would much rather see England lose like that, going down, having a proper go and a fight and enjoy a game of football. Watch that from an England team.

Playing on the front foot, not defending, going forwards. I would much rather see England losing, having a go at the world champions than just giving them too much respect. You can see the crowd really getting into it. The guys down here, like, they really enjoyed the game tonight. The supporters got behind it. Everyone was off their seat. It had that, because

it flowed, moments of second half, especially, it was like, you have a go, we have a go. It really flowed well at moments and that's when the game was at his peak. Let's hear from the head coach. Thomas Tuchel is with John Murray. Thomas, they clearly are the best team. They're the world champions, number one in the world. They don't

need a helping hand, do they? Yeah, we helped too much. We had too many individual big mistakes, unfortunately, on that kind of level. We started the game in the worst possible way, made things very complicated for us. The reaction was good, so there's no one to blame. This kind of things happen, but they happen too often to us on that kind of level. If you want to beat the best team, it was too many gifts. Reaction was good. We still conceded two big chances from big mistakes in crucial areas without any press.

pressure, unforced arrows. Then we stopped doing our mistakes, we survived the two big chances, grew into the game, created more and more. We were, I think, in the first half, not clinical enough in the last 20 meters, otherwise we could have created even more. Once we started to be precise, we created, then we converted chances, we had the full momentum, could have scored a third one in the first half. Second half was an excellent start, maybe one of our best 20 minutes that I saw on this kind of level. We're totally dominant clearly the better team, lift in their half, created chances, opportunities and got the penalty,

and this may be unfortunately the decisive moment today. I think in this moment when we go two goals up, there's no way back for them. And it didn't happen. Unfortunately, another mistake for the two-two and then the momentum shifted again. And Harry Kane slipped, didn't he, taking the penalty? Yeah, otherwise he normally doesn't miss.

And I think anyone who is listening watching will realize that that that clearly was a turning point. There was a certain amount of embracing the chaos, wasn't that tonight? Not so sure. I think we defended chaos in terms of... I'm not sure if it was a lot of chaos today. We had an incredible amount of high ball recoveries in the opponent's half.

I think 15 more than Spain. Overall, I think 15 in total. in the first half. That only goes against the team like Spain. If that only works if we play man-man, so we were very brave. That sometimes means that you follow and you are out of position.

But we did it on a high level. I got a lot of reward from it. The defending in a deep block was excellent except for the third goal where we got cut open through the middle. This should normally not happen. And offensively, I think we played in a clear structure. We tried to switch sides a lot.

We tried to put the fullbacks up to make the difference and they did. Yeah, a lot of good stuff, but unfortunately not the result. Would you still say that you are closing the gap that there is between you and the top teams? No gap today except for the technical execution in the last 20 meters. They were superior than us. Growing businesses deal with the same problem. Too many tools, too much back and forth and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth.

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This is the Football Daily podcast with Aaron Paul. I really want to hone in on a point you made pregame, which is talking about mentality, about having that in the trenches mentality when you are put under pressure, and Ian, you picked on it, I think it was a 12 minute spell where you said England had not created anything

and you refer back to being in the 66 minute. And that was a 78th from what I remember and what I've got written down here. How do we get out of that, Matt? How do we get out of that gear when it's a case of we are, it's back to the wall? We need to start progressing further up the pitch. I think it's small steps.

I don't think you can jump from where we were in that reaction in the World Cup against Argentina to now all of a sudden it being right. So was it a step forward tonight? Yeah, I think it was. I thought the way we approached it when we went two and up was very good. Half time I thought, well, this is going to be really interesting because Spain had got a chance to come back out. We've got 50 minutes to sit around.

You're out of that rhythm. You've got to come back out and how are you going to impose yourself on the game? First, 15 minutes of the second half, we're brilliant. Produced chance of Spain couldn't cope with his, forcing Rodry into errors with the ball, out of possession, we're all over them. So that reaction, we play with a belief that we were better than Spain.

And it showed, and we could have gone three-one up. And at that point, we may well have won the game. Absolutely. So from that perspective, I thought there was a big jump, then to continue to do that when the other team are then starting to get in their rhythm, that for me is where that detail starts to kick in and keeping that ball, passing it's safe side, making that decision to drop off instead of go. Like all those little in-game management decisions that are happening every second of the game

between 11 players, that's when that really does count. And you say Spain look really in sync, don't they, when they're in that flow. Well, Guillem told us it's a 30-year process. That's what I mean. And all the information that they took. And now they've got players that make really intelligent choices on the field. I think that's our next bit that we work at. But there was some really good signs tonight.

Could they have done with a bit more from the crowd? No, I thought they were excellent tonight. In all honesty. But the corner, you could hear them. Well, of course, yeah. When they're winning, you can. And they're the world champions. So they're coming here for a celebration.

This is the first game since the World Cup final. But no, the England fans were absolutely outstanding tonight. The atmosphere was building before the game. The pyrotechnics before the game, the show that they put on. This is the best atmosphere that I've seen in Wembley for a long time. Granted, we're playing against the world champions and there's a lot of buildup before the game and it was a sellout, but I do think that the crowd played their part in a good way this evening.

Matt, yeah, I thought the game offered up something that was worth your seat for at times and that's what we saw from the support. It was a good watch. It was a good watch. It was worth the entrance fee. Absolutely. And you can't say that about that many of the games that we've had here over the last couple of seasons haven't been anywhere near as level. and as combative as what this was with them at the ball. The crowd really enjoyed it. So from a defender's point of view,

tomorrow morning when you sit, you watch the analysis and you watch the game back, how do you start to repair the leaks, the gaps, because Spain cut through just a little bit too easily? Yeah, I don't think you can continue to make those errors, can you? So, you know, Mark Gerhey, for instance, will think, well, start of a game at this level, can I afford to be that relaxed in that moment?

He's quite a relaxed player anyway. It's a good trait of his because he's very calm. But that there, the start of the game, right, I'm stepping in with the ball. I can't turn out of here. If I need to spin it up the channel and into space and give away possession, that's not a disaster. The ball's safe and we'll get up the pitch. You know, those little in-game decisions that have affected the outcome of the game,

you have to go away and you have to log that. next time that situation occurs, you have to make a different choice. And if you don't, you have to get pulled up on it. And then the consequences will be what there be. Some people will keep working at it. Some people, you might lose your place in the team. You know, whatever the manager feels is right. But that for me is then building towards making those decisions right.

And if we did that better like Anthony Gordon said, then the result would have been different. Matt, hold on. We're going to head down to the battles of Wembley Stadium because Anthony Gordon is with football correspondent, John Murray. Yes he is Anthony Gordon here in front of me Well just give us a reaction Anthony your reading of what happened tonight

Yeah good game One I thought we were in control of I think the penalties are a massive moment I think if that goes in We're in a much better place than obviously when it doesn't Or hit slips and it's footballs You can do out a moment like that I thought all their goals were based

From us really I thought they were there are mistakes And I think at that level against that opposition, Carnival to do that. There was an element, wasn't there, of embracing the chaos at times in that match? There were a lot of different passages to it, weren't there? Yeah, I felt good, like I said, it was a bit of a rollercoaster of a match, but I always felt like we were in it, you know what I mean?

I didn't feel like we were treated. Just speaking about the summer and everything that's gone, all the controversy. I didn't feel like that was the case. I felt like we went for it. It must have been a great game to watch, I imagine, for fans. It was a great game to playing. And like I said, just mistakes. at the highest level, always going to punish her.

Yeah, it almost was a Premier League style match, which I know we were talking about earlier in the week. Problem is, they are world champions, world number one, European champions. They are a very good team, aren't they? And they showed it tonight. Yeah, they're the best in the world for a reason. I think the difference with them is if they get the lead, like once it went to 3-2, you see their ability to rarely control possession.

And that's what I spoke earlier this week about. Once you give them that lead, and it can be anyone or not as any team in the world, I just think it's going to be really difficult to get the ball back. I think against someone like that, you've really got to go for the throat, which we did. We come out really well a second half, and I think the penalty was a massive momentum shift. And already this week, we've spoken to you about being disappointed that you were substituted off in the semi-final. Having scored tonight as well, I guess you were disappointed again.

I'm always disappointed when I come off, only just because I want to score more goals, and I want to be part of every part of the game. I want to get more assist. I want to excite people who are watching me. But tonight I felt like it was maybe the right decision because I felt a bit tired. I've done a lot of long distance running at really, really high speed.

So tonight I've got no complaints with the manager taking me off. He done what was best for the team. I thought Morgan with his energy, with his athleticism. It was a good stub to trip to come on the pitch and really make an impact. And yeah, tonight's got no issues. So just summed up, just the feeling you'll go away from this tonight with?

Kind of mixed because I feel good. I feel like we performed. I feel like we were good. We went for the throw. We kind of done everything people have wanted and what we've asked of ourselves. We just lost to the best in the world. But I said earlier the gap's not big in my mind. I think tonight proved that.

We just need to obviously not make mistakes at the highest level. Thanks Anthony. Thanks for coming over. Thank you so much, Sean. Football correspondent, John Murray with England's Anthony Gordon there. He was upbeat following that defeat. He says the gap is close. There is no real gap to Spain.

England have been beaten here at Wembley tonight. But Matt Upson, just some really interesting takes from that. I've done it's actually when he's talking about Thomas Tuchel taking him off. Yeah, interesting, wasn't it? I think he may have made the best decision for him, but maybe not the best decision for the team. If he said he felt a bit tired and a lot of high intensity runs, because he is that adrenaline surge player, isn't he?

when he goes, it's high octane and it's high energy and high effort. But I couldn't see a positive to taking him off. The game was so finely balanced at that point that I just felt having him on the field. He was the one player for me that was actually leading the charge. So it just felt like it ran out of a little bit of steam once he went off the field. He was very diplomatic, almost like somebody had a word with him about his previous comments about the manager taking him off. Well, Paul, let's hear from another England player, Jarrow Kwanza is with John. Yes, we've already heard from Anthony Gordon,

and here is Jarrell Kwanza starting at right back tonight. Just give us your overview on how it went tonight. Yeah, I think for the neutral, it was a good game. Obviously, they took the lead early doors, and yeah, fighting from adversity and coming from 2-1-0-down, sorry, was really good. We show great mentality, and I feel like after halftime as well, we managed to really step on the throat and really try and give it a good go.

and another day we go three one up and we kill the game but unfortunately we couldn't and when they had a bit of momentum they were able to capitalize and probably that's the biggest takeaway from today. Did you think you might get the Nauders right back tonight? Yeah, but it's hard to say because obviously we're putting in positions

and you're always competing against the best in the world in my opinion so yeah it's always tough and you're always fighting so you always got to be ready for any occasion. And you are playing. there this season more often than central defense aren't you? Yeah, it seems to be that way.

How do you feel about that? Yeah, of course, it's something different for me. I've not really played there for all even when I was younger either, so sort of learning on the job and it's definitely different. But I feel like I've got a lot of power, a lot of pace on the side. And yeah, I'm still getting used to the position and I feel like I can offer a lot in different ways. opponent's Spain tonight

I mean obviously they're the world champions and they are the benchmark aren't they yeah of course they're the world champions are the best team in the world and we went toe for toe with them tonight and like I say before in another day I feel like we can win that game and we can really

put a statement but in football you never know what can happen and obviously the opposite happened for us this time but hopefully we can draw the positives And next time we play them, we can turn it into a positive result. Thanks, Jarrell. Appreciate that. Thank you.

John, thank you so much. Paul, Matt, I just want to ask, with this extended international break, it's good, isn't it? We sort of really bemoan pre-World Cup. How little time Thomas Tuchel had with his England players to come and sort of, you know, put ideas together. But having a run of four games in a two-week window, it feels very domestic seasony. and it's kind of nice for them to be together and to try and build on something. Tuesday night, you go again.

Yeah, I don't mind. I don't mind the way that the international break's been done. From a Premier League point of view as well, I think it helps the Premier League. And actually, from Thomas Tuchel's point of view, he gets his players together. But actually, we always say that managers don't have enough time with their players

and international managers are starved of time on the training field with their players. But let's see what he does in the coming three games because you only learn things if you play together regularly as a team. If he's going to change a lot of person, personnel each game. I'm not so sure than what he sees on the training ground he's going to progress the team with. Matt, what about the foundation for for Tuesday? Do you keep the core of this team together? As Paul says, you make mass changes and it's just disjointed again. I don't

I don't think I think you have to look kind of beyond that and think well this is it's never been more of a squad game is it? We saw with Spain tonight so regardless of who's playing. This is what the squad's about. These are the decision-making triggers. This is the ethos of what we're trying to do. It's got to be everyone, Aaron, isn't it? It's not just 11 players that need to be, you know, on side and in the loop and doing all the right things. It's the whole squad. So I think the fact that it changes is helpful. You've still got to maintain the same messaging, the same qualities, what they're looking for.

And I think that's really, really important. England's next game on Tuesday night comes you live from Prague. They take on check here. That one live on five live, sport, joint Kelly Summers and the team from 7 o'clock on BBC Sounds. and on five live sport. Thanks to Paul Robinson, Matt Upsson and Ian Dennis on the next episode of the Football Daily. It's the football interview with Kavitska Vaila and Usman Dembele.

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