![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/83c7aa38-9cc4-4f4f-b2f9-73268264dd17.jpg.webp.webp\")
Phil McNulty<\/a>BBC Sport chief football writer<\/p>\n
England made a winning start to their World Cup campaign as they overpowered Croatia in a thriller in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Thomas Tuchel’s side demonstrated strength in attack and frailty in defence, but possessed the firepower to finally overcome Croatia and set the platform for progress in Group L.<\/p>\n
Harry Kane put England ahead on 12 minutes with a twice taken spot-kick after Luka Modric fouled Noni Madueke, Croatia keeper Dominik Livakovic saving his first attempt but penalised for encroaching off his goalline.<\/p>\n
Croatia, always dangerous opponents, were level after 36 minutes when Martin Baturina sent a powerful drive high past Jordan Pickford, who got a touch but could not keep the ball out.<\/p>\n
Kane, inevitably, restored England’s lead three minutes before the break with a powerful header from Declan Rice’s corner, bringing him level with Gary Lineker on 10 World Cup goals, his 81st in 115 England appearances.<\/p>\n
England, however, never looked at ease defensively, Croatia equalising again with a well-worked goal seconds before half-time, Petar Musa steering Ivan Perisic’s header beyond Pickford.<\/p>\n
Jude Bellingham showed exactly why Tuchel selected him ahead of Morgan Rogers with a powerful run and finish moments after the break as the Three Lions established control once more.<\/p>\n
Marcus Rashford, on as a substitute, ended any lingering concerns with a composed finish five minutes from time as England move on to face Ghana in Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recap: England 4-2 Croatiapublished at 10:07 BST 10:07 BST Phil McNultyBBC Sport chief football writer England made a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-653705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}