{"id":340714,"date":"2026-06-18T02:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340714\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T02:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:19:53","slug":"kane-draws-level-with-lineker-as-england-outgun-croatia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340714\/","title":{"rendered":"Kane draws level with Lineker as England outgun Croatia"},"content":{"rendered":"

England’s Harry Kane (second left) scores his side’s second goal during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, Texas – Harry Kane struck twice while Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford delivered the knockout blows as England survived a back-and-forth battle to beat Croatia 4-2 on Wednesday and launch their World Cup campaign in a heavyweight clash that lived up to its \u200bbilling.<\/p>\n

The Group L meeting carried heavy expectations long before kickoff, given the history between the sides, with Croatia’s extra-time victory over England in the 2018 \u200cWorld Cup semifinals adding an extra edge to the occasion.<\/p>\n

The match at Dallas Stadium more than delivered as Croatia twice hauled themselves level to keep England in check before Bellingham rose to the occasion with England’s third goal in the 47th minute and then Rashford put the game away with an 85th-minute strike.<\/p>\n

Bellingham put England decisively in front when he surged down the right with a powerful run before guiding his finish low across goal, the ball kissing the post \u200bon its way in. He raised his arms wide in his trademark celebration.<\/p>\n

England’s Jude Bellingham (10) kicks the ball during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

Then Bukayo Saka found fellow second-half substitute Rashford, who calmly slotted home.<\/p>\n

“It’s my responsibility to the \u200bteam and to my country to give everything I have when I cross the line and wear that badge on the front, wear \u2060that number 10 on the back,” Bellingham said.<\/p>\n

Kane equals Lineker record<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Kane, who arrived at the World Cup shouldering heavy expectations after a brilliant season at Bayern Munich, had opened \u200bthe scoring from the penalty spot in the 12th minute after Noni Madueke was brought down in the box by Croatia’s 40-year-old Luka Modric.<\/p>\n

Dominik Livakovic saved Kane’s first effort but was ruled \u200bto have moved off his line early and Kane made no mistake with the retake, driving a firm shot into the right corner and sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.<\/p>\n

But Martin Baturina equalized in the 36th minute, whipping a shot into the corner with pace and precision that Jordan Pickford got a hand on but could not keep out.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Portugal held to 1-1 draw by DRC in their World Cup opener<\/a><\/p>\n

The goal ended a string of 10 straight shutouts in competitive matches for England.<\/p>\n

England’s Harry Kane (9) scores from the penalty spot during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (1) punches the ball away during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

England’s captain Kane put \u200bthe Three Lions back on top in the 42nd minute to draw level with Gary Lineker’s World Cup goalscoring record of 10 goals for England.<\/p>\n

Croatia inexplicably left Kane unmarked at a corner and when \u200bDeclan Rice’s delivery dropped invitingly into the area, the striker timed his jump perfectly to steer a header down into the bottom corner for his 81st goal for England.<\/p>\n

But England’s joy was short-lived as Croatia struck seconds before the \u200cbreak, when \u2060Ivan Perisic’s deft header allowed Petar Musa to run on and slot the ball home.<\/p>\n

“I thought a game of two halves, really,” Kane said. “Credit to the manager, (he) gave us a speech at halftime just to say, ‘look, if we lose, we lose. We’re losing our way’.<\/p>\n

“The way we came out in the second half, we went full gas. And they couldn’t live with it.”<\/p>\n

England’s Elliot Anderson (8) tries to score as Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic tries to save the ball during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

Defensive frailties<\/p>\n

Despite the final result, England’s defensive frailties were laid bare as they conceded twice through avoidable errors against Croatia, raising serious questions about their organization at the back.<\/p>\n

Poor decision-making twice allowed Croatia back into the game, \u200bleaving a visibly furious Thomas Tuchel stomping down \u200bthe tunnel to the dressing room at \u2060halftime while at the end of the second half Kane made a goal-line block deep in added time to stop Josko Gvardiol’s shot.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t one of those where it was a big drama, he wasn’t standing up shouting,” Bellingham said of Tuchel’s halftime speech.<\/p>\n

“It was just what the team needed and to \u200bbe fair we have a mature group, we have great leaders in there and I think everyone kind of knew the level that \u200bwe had to get \u2060to and why we weren’t hitting it.”<\/p>\n

Croatia’s Marco Pasalic (left) and England’s Marcus Rashford vie for the ball during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, June 17, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

England had arrived as one of the favorites after a flawless qualifying campaign in which they did not concede a single goal, while Croatia’s path was almost perfect, dropping points only against the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

There had been lingering doubts over how England would cope with adversity, but in their first real test against top-level opposition for some time, they answered those questions \u2060going forward — \u200beven if concerns lingered at the back.<\/p>\n

England next face Ghana in Boston on Tuesday, and then finish the group stage against \u200bPanama on June 27.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Messi hat-trick equals scoring record as Argentina dazzle against Algeria<\/a><\/p>\n

Croatia will play Panama in Toronto on Tuesday, and then play Ghana four days later in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

“We scored excellent goals, but unfortunately, we did not do very well, especially in defending set pieces,” Croatia coach Zlatko \u200bDalic said. “It’s a defeat and definitely not an easy one. But it’s okay, we have another two matches and we’ll try to correct it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England’s Harry Kane (second left) scores his side’s second goal during the World Cup Group L soccer match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,95966,49711,300,731,3692],"class_list":["post-340714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-croatia","tag-england","tag-football","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}