England star Jude Bellingham praised his teammates for a gut-busting display as they overcame Norway 2-1 to secure their place in the World Cup semi-finals.
The Real Madrid midfielder scored twice to cancel out a 36th minute Andreas Schjelderup opener at the Miami Stadium on Saturday.
Bellingham netted a timely equaliser on the stroke of half time as he finished briliiantly after picking up a Anthony Gordon pass.
The former Borussia Dortmund man then netted three minutes into extra-time with a close-range goal after the match had reached full-time all square.
After the game, England head coach Thomas Tuchel admitted he wasn’t happy with the performance, but Bellingham brushed off that criticism as he lauded a “tough shift” put in by his colleagues.
“Yeah, well, whatever. Whatever,” the player said. “It’s difficult out there. It’s a tough shift. All the players have put in a tough shift, so my thoughts and appreciation goes to the players who were out there and put in a great shift yet again.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Odegaard, [Antonio] Nusa, [Alexander] Sorloth. That’s not an easy team to play against,” Bellingham added.
“So, I think we’ve tried to create a positive environment. You’re not going to win every game, popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty, and we’ve done that again tonight.”
