2026 FIFA World Cup: Group L – England vs Croatia

England begin their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign with a tricky Group L opener against Croatia. 

England begin this tournament as one of the title favourites, whilst Croatia are viewed amongst the outsiders after they finished second then third in the last two World Cups.

 

Team News

England manager, Thomas Tuchel has a near-full squad available although Bukayo Saka’s game time is likely to be managed in the group stage, with the winger having struggled with various injuries across the recent domestic season.

Tino Livramento is ruled out after he suffered a calf injury in training which forced him to withdraw from the squad, with Trevoh Chalobah called up as his replacement.

Croatia have no fresh injury concerns to report.

 

When is Kick-Off?

England face Croatia at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, on Wednesday 17 June at 3pm DST (9pm BST), live on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• England lost their only previous meeting against Croatia in a World Cup main tournament, as they fell to a 2-1 defeat after extra time in the semi-finals of the 2018 edition.
• Croatia are playing as the designated away team against England in a World Cup main tournament for the first time.
• England scored four goals without conceding in their two warm-up friendlies (W2), as they scraped past New Zealand in a 1-0 win then beat Costa Rica by a 3-0 result.
• Croatia have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last six matches across all competitions (W4, L2).

 

Prediction

Having produced dominant performances against New Zealand and Costa Rica, England can’t afford to get complacent because this is the ideal upward crank in oppositional quality to start their World Cup campaign, especially given how wasteful they were in the friendlies.

Croatia meanwhile do seem to have defensive fragilities which England will look to exploit with their suffocating attacking press, but there is no doubt that the Croatians can’t be written off given their quality in terms of their attacking quality.

On that note, I can see accurate end product being the defining point of this clash and England honestly should just have too much for Croatia.

Prediction: England 2-1 Croatia

Result: England 4-2 Croatia