ARLINGTON, Texas -- England coach Thomas Tuchel said his players overcame their nerves and the psychological fear of losing a lead to power past Croatia at Dallas Stadium (AT&T Stadium) on Wednesday.
The Three Lions kicked off their World Cup campaign with an impressive 4-2 win but were twice pegged back in the first half.
Harry Kane's retaken 12th-minute penalty put them in front before Martin Baturina equalized on 36 minutes. Kane headed in Declan Rice's corner, but Petar Musa pulled Croatia level again in first-half stoppage time, finishing a well-worked move.
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But England improved significantly in the second half and Jude Bellingham's excellent strike edged them ahead again before substitute Marcus Rashford completed the scoring with a low curling strike five minutes from time.
"I think we showed a bit of nerves," Tuchel said. "Maybe we wanted to do overdo it, but we clearly overthought our decisions. It took us too long to take decisions. When we could play short, we played long. When we could have played long, we played short.
"We couldn't find a real rhythm in our game and even in defending it took us too long to make decisions to go as a block into the high press. We spend way too much time in a low block, which is also not our identity and not what we wanted to have."
Tuchel said having the lead twice also did not seem to help his team play more freely.
"I had more the impression we have to protect something now, got punished for it, which is psychologically not easy, but I loved the reaction after halftime," he said. "We encouraged them to go for it, to play with more courage, to be brave, to be ourselves and, like I said, I loved the reaction."
Tuchel downplayed injury fears over Rice, who was taken off with 18 minutes left after signaling an issue.
"Declan has some unusual ball losses and I saw a bit of discomfort," Tuchel said. "I asked him and he pointed directly to his lower back, upper hamstring, that he feels discomfort.
"I didn't want to take any risks. If I take Declan off, which I never want to do, but it was the moment to protect him. I think Reece James did so well in central midfield. That's that. I hope it is nothing more. He just reassured me at the end 'it's good, it's good' and we will take care of it. I hope it is nothing to worry about."
Kane, 32, who won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia by scoring six times, is up to 10 World Cup goals, tying the England men's record set by Gary Lineker from the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Kane also became only the second Englishman, alongside David Beckham, to score in three World Cups.
The Bayern Munich striker gave credit to Tuchel for the second-half turnaround.
"Credit to the manager. The manager gave us a speech at halftime, just to say if we lose we lose, but we lose in our way," he told ITV. "You saw that the way we came out in the second half, we came out full gas. They couldn't live with it and that's the level we have to set every game. Credit to everyone. The first game of the tournament. A great result against a tough side."
Tuchel also spoke about the emotion of the occasion, managing at his first World Cup after a dramatic ascent in his club career, which started at FC Augsburg II before spells at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
"I have to tell you something: I am begging FIFA to change the position of the photographers in the national anthem because I could not see my team in the national anthem," Tuchel said. "I was waiting for this moment. It was a very, very special moment today and I was standing in front of a wall of 50 photographers, half a meter away, and I could not see one single player.
"It ruined a little bit my experience. It is very emotional. When I was young and when I started coaching, this was too big to dream of this kind of occasion."
England next take on Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in Group L on Tuesday, the same day Croatia play Panama in Toronto.
ESPN Research contributed to this report.