Saka says England still feels pain from World Cup loss

England winger Bukayo Saka says the national team still feels the emotional “scar” from their tough 2026 World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina. This comes as they get ready to start a new Nations League campaign.

Thomas Tuchel’s team almost reached their first men’s World Cup final since 1966. They were just minutes away before two late goals from Argentina led to a painful 2-1 defeat.

Even though they fought back to win third place with an exciting 6-4 victory over France, which is England's best World Cup finish in sixty years, the sadness of missing out on winning the trophy still hangs over them.

According to BBC Sport on Wednesday, ahead of England’s first Nations League match against world champions Spain at Wembley, Saka spoke openly about how they feel after their World Cup exit.

“Obviously, there is still a scar on us when you believed and everyone was so united and so confident we could do it. Not just us, but the whole country, we felt,” Saka said.

He added, “You try to move on as soon as possible, but you know a scar is a scar, it decides to heal when it heals itself.”

Despite the ongoing pain, Saka said the team is shifting its focus to the task of topping their Nations League group.

Saka mentioned, “We are trying to draw a line under [the World Cup now and focus on the new international season that we have coming up. We have got four massive, difficult group games to try and qualify us for the Nations League [knockouts] that we are really focused on.”