{"id":341563,"date":"2026-06-18T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341563\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:22:09","slug":"kane-leads-england-over-croatia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341563\/","title":{"rendered":"Kane leads England over Croatia"},"content":{"rendered":"

GHANA WIN:
\n England\u2019s Jude Bellingham put his side ahead shortly after halftime and Marcus Rashford padded their lead in the 85th minute <\/p>\n

Harry Kane on Wednesday scored twice to equal the England record for goals at the FIFA World Cup, while Jude Bellingham put England in front for good two minutes into the second half of a 4-2 victory over Croatia in Group L.<\/p>\n

Martin Baturina and Petar Musa answered each of Kane\u2019s first-half goals in a rematch of a 2018 semi-final won by Croatia. Musa\u2019s goal came on the final play before the whistle ending the first half at the Dallas Stadium.<\/p>\n

The even score did not last long once play resumed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

Bellingham took a long pass from Elliot Anderson and stayed clear of the defender the rest of the way, sending a shot past goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic and in off the far post.<\/p>\n

Marcus Rashford padded the lead in the 85th minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just told us to let the shackles off,\u201d Kane said of coach Thomas Tuchel\u2019s halftime message after Croatia pulled even so soon before the break.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we conceded that second goal is not the team we want to be. He finally just said: \u2018What\u2019s the worst that can happen? We lose the match, first group game, we get on with it.\u2019 We move on. Just go and kind of show the world who we can be,\u201d Kane added.<\/p>\n

Kane, who won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia by scoring six times, is up to 10 World Cup goals, tying Gary Lineker\u2019s mark from the 1986 and 1990 tournaments.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old\u2019s first goal came on his second chance on a penalty-kick after Livakovic\u2019s save on the first try was nullified by a video review that showed both his feet off the goal line as Kane was striking the ball.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

Kane went the same way toward the right post with the second attempt, while Livakovic lunged the other direction, to his right.<\/p>\n

The penalty was called when Luka Modric, the 40-year-old midfielder who extended his Croatian record by appearing in his fifth World Cup, kicked Noni Madueke in the thigh.<\/p>\n

Kane matched Lineker\u2019s mark when the Bayern Munich striker easily beat Livakovic with a powerful header off a corner-kick from Declan Rice. Kane has 81 international goals.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe scored two goals that were good actions and good situations, but they were too little,\u201d Croatia coach Zlatco Dalic said through an interpreter. \u201cEngland was very difficult, [we] also have to be strong on the defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellingham almost immediately had another great scoring chance after the Real Madrid player\u2019s seventh international goal. Livakovic made that save and about a half-dozen more in a matter of minutes during a frenetic English attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have scored probably three goals in that 20-minute spell coming out\u201d after halftime, Kane said. \u201cIn the end, we just had too much for a great team that will probably go far in the tournament themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musa scored the first World Cup goal for an active player from Dallas of Major League Soccer, who play their home games not far from AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n

The retractable-roof venue that is home to the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys is giving World Cup fans an air-conditioned reprieve from the muggy Texas heat, this time for white-clad English fans and Croatian supporters who were mostly wearing their country\u2019s familiar red-and-white checkered uniforms, not the blue kits the players had on.<\/p>\n

Musa tracked a header from Ivan Perisic and put a one-timer past Jordan Pickford, who was also beaten in the 36th minute by Baturina. That shot into the left corner ticked off Pickford\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

Bukayo Saka\u2019s pass left plenty of room for Rashford as the Barcelona player entered the penalty area, faked a shot with his left foot and scored his 19th international goal with his right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the second half, all of it,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cI encouraged them to go for it. To play with more courage, to be brave, to be ourselves. And like I said, I loved their reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

England next face Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, the same day Croatia are to play Panama in Toronto.<\/p>\n

At the Toronto Stadium on Wednesday, Ghana\u2019s Caleb Yirenkyi tapped in a cross from Brandon Thomas-Asante in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage-time as they beat Panama 1-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GHANA WIN: England\u2019s Jude Bellingham put his side ahead shortly after halftime and Marcus Rashford padded their lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,32713,32712],"class_list":["post-341563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-32712"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341563","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=341563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}