Tuchel and Garcia test World Cup's last frontier as national identity gives way to a global game

ATLANTA, July 8 : International football has long resisted the foreign coach, especially the major nations who view the World Cup as an expression of national identity, but with Thomas Tuchel's England and Rudi Garcia's Belgium reaching the quarter-finals, the old taboo is being tested again. 

At the start of the tournament, 27 countries had non-nationals at the helm, up from nine four years ago, but only German Tuchel and Frenchman Garcia remain in contention to become the first foreign coach to lift the trophy.

The last time a foreigner led a side to the final was Austrian Ernst Happel whose Netherlands team lost to Argentina in 1978, but England may finally have found the recipe after unsuccessful foreign-coach experiments with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

 Others — most notably Brazil with Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who was appointed only a year ago to start a major rebuild of the national team — have not yet been able to make the same leap.

Tuchel was not brought in to make a complete overhaul, rather to take England that one step further after Gareth Southgate's reign led to two European Championship finals, and a World Cup semi-final.

He remains on course after battling past DR Congo and Mexico to set up a last-eight clash with Norway who knocked out Brazil in the last 16.

The record five-times champions continue to under-achieve having not reached a final since their 2002 win, and while their bold foreign-coach gamble failed to deliver immediate success, Ancelotti will be given more time.

The Italian signed a contract extension until the next World Cup before this tournament, and the Brazilian federation is hopeful that stability can reap rewards, despite Ancelotti coming in for much criticism.

Belgium,