![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JMUHSY_AFP__20260617__2282107775__v1__HighRes__EnglandVCroatiaGroupLFifaWorldCup2026_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHarry Kane scored twice in the first half as England eventually saw off Croatia 4-2 to launch their World Cup title assault in Texas on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Jude Bellingham, immediately after half-time, and substitute Marcus Rashford with five minutes to go ensured a winning start for Thomas Tuchel’s side after Croatia had fought back to level at 2-2.<\/p>\n
The prolific Kane twice put England ahead in the first half – one a retaken penalty – only for Martin Baturina and Petar Musa to hit back for 2018 runners-up Croatia.<\/p>\n
With both sides shaky at the back, the second half threatened another goal glut, Bellingham needing just two minutes to put England ahead again in front of a crowd of 70,000.<\/p>\n
England had numerous chances to extend their lead but did not take them until Rashford popped up to put the seal on a chaotic encounter.<\/p>\n
“I thought the game was two halves really,” the skipper Kane told ITV.<\/p>\n
“I thought first half we were okay. Really disappointed to concede in the way we did, the way we dropped off.<\/p>\n
“And credit to the manager. The manager gave us a speech at half-time just to say, look, if we lose, we’re losing our way.<\/p>\n
“And I think you saw that, the way we come out in the second half, we went full gas, and they couldn’t live with it.”<\/p>\n
The meeting was a repeat of the 2018 semi-final, which Croatia won after extra-time, although England have since had the edge against one of the older squads in North America.<\/p>\n
Zlatko Dalic, the Croatia coach who has masterminded much of their recent success, said England’s prowess at dead-ball situations had caused numerous problems.<\/p>\n
He called it a “strange and difficult” match.<\/p>\n
“We made a lot of mistakes, especially when it came to set-pieces,” said Dalic, whose side face Panama next and will still fancy their chances of getting out of Group L.<\/p>\n
Frenetic half<\/p>\n
Tuchel’s side, bidding to deliver England a first major trophy since 1966, made a nervy start at the impressive air-conditioned home of the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Then the drama came. Croatia’s talismanic captain Luka Modric dangled out a leg and caught Noni Madueke in the box.<\/p>\n
Kane saw his unconvincing penalty saved by Dominik Livakovic, only for French referee Clement Turpin to order a retake after video replays deemed the stopper had come off his line.<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich predator Kane held his nerve second time around, again going to Livakovic’s left but this time in more ruthless fashion to give England the lead after 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
Now it was all England, and Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham – preferred to Morgan Rogers in the number 10 role – surged upfield, forcing Livakovic to smother.<\/p>\n
On 36 minutes Croatia drew level.<\/p>\n
England squandered the ball in midfield, then Petar Sucic left John Stones on the floor with some neat footwork to set up Baturina.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old met the ball first time and whipped it past Jordan Pickford.<\/p>\n
Croatia were level for just six minutes as a Declan Rice corner found Kane unmarked and the captain nodded home.<\/p>\n
It took Kane to 10 World Cup goals, the most of any England player along with Gary Lineker.<\/p>\n
Tuchel, who has made it clear that winning the World Cup is his aim, barely smiled.<\/p>\n
Putting the seal on a frenetic first half, Musa took advantage of more poor England defending in the fifth minute of injury time to stroke the ball in for 2-2.<\/p>\n
England ‘intensity’<\/p>\n
The second half started just as the first ended as Bellingham galloped down the right unchallenged and rolled the ball into the corner.<\/p>\n
Kane and Nico O’Reilly twice each, and Bellingham, had good chances for a 4-2 lead as England pummelled the Croatia goal.<\/p>\n
With 15 minutes left and England retreating, Croatia had several opportunities, before Rashford made the three points safe.<\/p>\n
“Just the intensity we went at, I think that’s our biggest strength,” Kane said, when asked what was different in the second half.<\/p>\n
“So we’re going to have to use that more at this tournament.”<\/p>\n
He added: “Once we went ahead we never really looked like we were in danger.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Harry Kane of England celebrates after scoring. FIFA World Cup, 2026.<\/p>\n
RICHARD PELHAM \/ AFP<\/p>\n
See how the action unfolded below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane scored twice in the first half as England eventually saw off Croatia 4-2 to launch their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-482885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}