Full Time
England beat Croatia 4-2 in their World Cup 2026 Group L opener in Dallas, Harry Kane netting twice — including a penalty on the retake after Gvardiol jumped the gun — before Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford put the game to bed in the second half. Croatia made a proper match of it in the first half, Baturina and Musa both scoring to keep the scoreline tight at the break, but England ran away with it after the restart. Livakovic in goal was the only reason it wasn't uglier. England move top of the group; Croatia need a result next time out.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1England go into this needing a win to set the tone for Group L — not because they're in trouble, but because dropping points to Croatia on matchday one would immediately make Ghana and Panama feel relevant. Croatia, meanwhile, had an absolute shocker at Euro 2024, going out in the group stage without a single win. A loss here and people will start asking whether this golden generation has quietly gone off.
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2These two have history — and not the friendly kind. Croatia knocked England out of the 2018 World Cup semi-final in extra time, which remains one of the more painful nights in recent Three Lions history. England got their revenge at Euro 2020 (well, technically 2021), winning 1-0, but the margin between these sides has always been slim. Every meeting tends to come down to one moment, one mistake, one goal — which means it should at least be watchable.
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3Harry Kane is the name to watch, and not just because he's England's captain and all-time top scorer. He went into this tournament having scored 67 goals across all competitions this season — the most he's ever managed in a single year, and more than any other player heading into a World Cup. That's not just a stat, that's a man who arrives in the form of his life at exactly the right time. If he doesn't score here, it will be genuinely surprising.
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4Luka Modric is 40 years old and still getting picked to start a World Cup opener. That's either a testament to how good he still is or a slight indictment of Croatian depth — probably both. The bigger subplot on the England side is Bukayo Saka's Achilles, which has been managed carefully all tournament. Tuchel has said they need to 'take care' of him, which is the kind of thing a manager says when a player isn't quite right. England fans will be hoping he lasts 90 minutes.
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5This is Luka Modric's fifth World Cup — only a handful of players in history have appeared at five tournaments. At 40, it's almost certainly his last, which gives every touch he gets a faint whiff of farewell. Whether you care about Croatia or not, watching one of the best midfielders of his generation have one final go at the world's biggest stage is worth paying attention to.
Team Talking Points
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1England beat France 6-4 in Miami last night to take third place at the 2026 World Cup — their best finish since they won the whole thing outright in 1966. Ten goals in one match is a new record for a third-place game, the highest-scoring one in World Cup history. Bronze isn't gold, but it's the best England have managed in sixty years, so let them have this one.
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2Bukayo Saka came off the bench and scored a hat-trick — his second for England — having been dropped for the semi-final defeat to Argentina in favour of Morgan Rogers. He'd spent the days before insisting he was fully fit and wanted more minutes; three goals later, he'd made the point better than any interview could. Drop this in and you'll sound like you've been tracking the team sheet all tournament.
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3Jude Bellingham got in on it too, scoring deep into stoppage time for his seventh goal of the tournament — the kind of tally that puts him right in the conversation for the competition's top scorer, even in a match that didn't count for silverware.
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4France weren't just making up the numbers either — Kylian Mbappé scored twice and, somewhere in the chaos, became the World Cup's all-time leading scorer, overtaking Messi's old record of 21. It's a genuinely huge milestone that got almost completely buried under the goalfest around it.
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5Manager Thomas Tuchel had grumbled beforehand that 'nobody wants to play' the third-place match, then watched his team produce one of the most entertaining games of the whole tournament. He's since talked about the semi-final exit leaving 'scars' England will use as fuel heading into Euro 2028 — so treat bronze as the start of a comeback story, not the end of one.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Saka came off the bench and banged in a hat-trick in a 6-4 game against France — bronze medal, best England finish since '66, and he wasn't even supposed to be on that long.
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Avoid saying
"So they lost, then?" — England just won a bronze medal in the highest-scoring third-place game in World Cup history, with a Saka hat-trick from the bench. Lead with the semi-final defeat instead of that and you'll sound like you switched off after the Argentina game.
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1Croatia's tournament ended in the Round of 32, beaten 2-1 by Portugal — a step earlier than the semi-final runs they're used to from 2018 and 2022, but a fair result against a very good side.
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2The signature moment came in their final group game against Ghana: Luka Modric, at 40, became the oldest player ever to register a World Cup assist, setting up Nikola Vlašić's 83rd-minute winner, then blocked a goal-bound effort in his own box in stoppage time to make sure it counted.
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3Modric also picked up his 200th cap for Croatia during the group stage, in the win over Panama — a number very few players in football history ever reach, let alone at a World Cup.
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4Croatia lost their opener 4-2 to England, which looked like trouble at the time, but they responded by beating Panama and Ghana to finish second in the group anyway — the sign of a team that doesn't panic.
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5This was Modric's third World Cup taking Croatia to the knockout stage in a row, and quite possibly his last — at 40, there won't be many more chances. If this is the end of his international story, it's one worth remembering fondly rather than mourning; not many players get to leave a stage still making history on their way out.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Modric's 40, he just became the oldest man to ever set up a World Cup goal, and he still blocked a shot in his own box seconds later — that's not a farewell tour, that's just Modric.
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Avoid saying
"Croatia always overachieve" — true, but say it like it's a compliment about a plucky underdog and any Croatian fan will remind you they've been a World Cup finalist and two-time semi-finalist this century. This is a genuinely good footballing nation, not a fairytale.