Thomas Tuchel has insisted England will get better when the competition improves after a lacklustre performance against New Zealand on Saturday.

Harry Kane scored the only goal as England laboured to a 1-0 win over a New Zealand side currently ranked 85th in the world. The Three Lions experimented heavily in the red-hot Tampa heat, with two entirely different teams featuring in either half.

As a result of the conditions and changes, England lacked rhythm, in a fixture played at training ground pace. Despite that, Tuchel is not concerned, and insisted his team will continue to improve as the World Cup approaches.

England face Costa Rica in a second warm-up fixture, before opening their World Cup campaign against Croatia on June 19th.

“The better the opponent gets, the better we will get,” Tuchel said.

“I was happier with the second half. I thought we had more hunger and more desire. We played better but did not score.

“We didn’t play according to our plan in the first half. It slowed the game down, but it was better in the second half.

“We will acclimatise to the humidity and the sun while we are here. Tomorrow will be recovery day, then we have two days to prepare for Costa Rica. Then a chunk of players will get more minutes. The Arsenal players are in now, which is good because it gives us energy and quality, and then we have another one and a half days off.

“Then we go to Kansas and prepare for Croatia.”

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