England coach Thomas Tuchel said he substituted Jude Bellingham during the 3-0 World Cup qualification win against Latvia to prevent the Real Madrid midfielder from being sent off.
Goals from Reece James, Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze secured a comfortable win at Wembley Stadium that took England to the top of Group K and ensured that Tuchel maintained his 100% winning start as coach.
But England could have been forced to play the final half hour with 10 men due to a reckless challenge by Bellingham on Latvia defender Raivis Jurkovskis.
Referee Orel Grinfeeld chose not to caution Bellingham, who had been yellow carded for a similarly rash tackle in the first-half, but with the threat of the 21-year-old making another foul, Tuchel said he made the decision to substitute Bellingham to avoid a potential red card.
“We were a bit lucky,” Tuchel said about Bellingham’s tackle on Jurkovskis. “We had a situation with Jude Bellingham where anything can happen and suddenly have a yellow-red card.
“Then everything could turn upside down, so that’s why I made the change from the bench.
“I think the first one [yellow card] was a bit harsh because he [Bellingham] was dribbling and we suddenly had a yellow card. It felt strange at half-time that we had a yellow and none of our opponents did.
“But the second one was possible [yellow.] It would have been harsh, but straight away we changed him.
“We saw the huge effort Jude put in in the first game and he didn’t seem so fresh in my observation. But the substitution, I didn’t want to take the risk [of a red card], so I took him off.”
Despite the comfortable margin of England’s victory, the game lacked entertainment value due to Latvia’s defensive gameplan.
But Tuchel said he was happy with the winning start to his reign as head coach.
“There is still room to improve,” he said. “But two wins, two clean sheets and we didn’t allow any big chances, so there are a lot of positives to take away.
“It was not an easy match. We saw a lot of good things, created good chances. We needed a free-kick to unlock it. I’m happy with the attitude, energy and desire. We will get there.”
