The Three Lions of England on Wednesday beat Croatia 4-2 in their Group L opener of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States of America.

Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane first converted a penalty in the 12th minute following a foul by veteran Luka Modric, but Croatia drew level in the 36th minute with a stunning shot by Martin Baturina.

Kane earned his brace in the 42nd minute from a corner kick by Arsenal’s Declan Rice to restore England’s lead in the game. But Ivan Perisic header into the path of Petar Musa, who slotted the ball home levelled the score line five minutes into injury time of the first half.

However, in the second half, England took control of the game with Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham who received a long pass by Elliot Anderson to regain the lead, before Marcus Rashford beautifuly converting a pass from Bukayo Saka, in the 85th minute to increase the lead.

Speaking after the match, England coach, Thomas Tuchel said, “I think we showed a bit of nerves. 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.

“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. 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.”