Gary Neville hails ‘very special’ Jude Bellingham after brace inspires England

The Real Madrid man now has six goals at this tournament, having responded to Andreas Schjelderup’s opener.

Speaking on ITV, ex-England right-back Neville said: “I have seen (Paul) Gascoigne and (Michael) Owen rip it up at major tournaments, (Wayne) Rooney in 2004, but I’ve never seen a player in my lifetime have an impact like Jude Bellingham.

“It’s very special what we are watching, he’s everything and more.

“It was a struggle, a massive struggle, but we got through. To get to a World Cup semi-final is massive. They’ve got something about them.”

Bellingham has now scored as many goals this tournament as his captain, Harry Kane, and Ian Wright added: “If it doesn’t happen for Harry, Jude Bellingham says, ‘hold my beer’.”

As England’s players sung with the travelling fans, manager Thomas Tuchel was telling ITV he was unhappy with their performance.

“We made life very difficult for ourselves,” he said. “We’re in the last four, amazing, but not happy in every sense.

“The commitment is there, but we made life very difficult. Sloppy, mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough, we were lucky today.”

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Asked if it was a mentality issue, Tuchel said: “This is pure mentality, how can you ask about mentality? There is no mentality problem, this is pure, you can bottle it up and sell it. It’s nothing to do with mentality.”

He called Bellingham “world class” and, when the midfielder was told his manager was not happy with the team’s performance, Bellingham replied: “Whatever. It’s difficult out there. A tough shift.

“Character, perseverance, when things weren’t working we found a way to win a game. We gave it everything we’ve got. So proud of this team.”