England vs Croatia – World Cup 2026: Kane, predictions, TV channel, kickoff

The 2026 World Cup volition person 13 antithetic kickoff times. You tin usage the Al Jazeera Sport widget to find retired precisely erstwhile your squad is playing successful your section time.

Who: England vs Croatia
What: FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L match
Where: AT&T Stadium, Dallas, Texas
When: Wednesday, 3pm section clip (20:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll person each the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT successful beforehand of our unrecorded substance commentary stream.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Messi hat-trick fires holders Argentina to triumph implicit Algeria astatine World Cup
• list 2 of 4Haaland treble powers Norway to World Cup triumph implicit Iraq successful Boston
• list 3 of 4Which France and World Cup records did Mbappe interruption against Senegal?
• list 4 of 4Democrat calls for Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha’s parent to get US visa

Chants of “It’s Coming Home” volition ringing astir parts of England connected Wednesday arsenic the European heavyweights statesman their 2026 World Cup rubric bid with a trial against acquainted foes, Croatia.

It has been 60 years since England were past crowned satellite champions, but they are genuine contenders for the rubric this year.

While manager Thomas Tuchel’s squad selection divided instrumentality sentiment successful the run-up to their travel to North America, bookmakers inactive judge this harvest of English talent, headlined by Harry Kane, tin execute a heavy tally successful the tournament.

Their archetypal hurdle, though, is simply a challenging one.

Once labelled underdogs, Croatia person grown into 1 of planetary football’s astir accordant tourney performers, finishing arsenic World Cup runners-up successful 2018 and earning 3rd spot astatine the past edition, successful 2022, arsenic good arsenic 1998.

Their 40-year-old skipper Luka Modric whitethorn good beryllium heading into his past tournament, but helium remains the heartbeat of the team, and arsenic has been the lawsuit for years, Croatia airs a menace nether his leadership.

Al Jazeera tells you everything you request to cognize astir England vs Croatia:

Kane: 2026 World Cup ‘one of the champion opportunities’ for England triumph

After a drawstring of near-misses astatine caller European Championships and World Cups, England caput into the 2026 tourney chasing their archetypal satellite rubric since 1966.

They are led by skipper Kane, who has arrived successful North America successful immoderate of the best signifier of his career, and caller disconnected the precocious of lifting his second Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich.

“For sure, it’s 1 of the champion opportunities we volition person arsenic a squad to triumph it,” Kane told reporters, talking astir England’s likelihood of winning the tournament.

“I deliberation everyone is anxious to conscionable commencement good and beryllium that we person the capabilities of going acold successful this tournament.”

England fans tin expect Harry Kane to occurrence goals, arsenic the striker heads to the tourney successful immoderate of the champion signifier of his vocation [File: Peter Cziborra/Reuters]

The 32-year-old has urged his team, who had a 100 percent grounds successful the qualifiers, to “go for it” and beryllium “free successful the mind” erstwhile they motorboat their World Cup rubric complaint successful Texas.

Tuchel, too, knows the expectations from fans are high, with England among the apical contenders successful the 48-team tournament.

Their champion tally successful caller times has been reaching the semifinals successful 2018, portion their past run ended successful the quarterfinals successful 2022 – some nether erstwhile manager Gareth Southgate.

“We person a close to dream, but we don’t privation to beryllium delusional,” Tuchel has said.

Croatia manager Dalic warns astir goal-machine Kane, calls Modric his ‘right hand’

Croatia’s caput manager Zlatko ‌Dalic has warned his squad to beryllium wary of goal-scoring instrumentality Kane, who netted a whopping 61 times ⁠in 51 matches successful each competitions for Bayern Munich past season.

“They person the champion striker successful the world, they person Kane, and Kane tin ⁠do a hellhole of a lot,” said Dalic. “We volition bash a lot, we volition bash our champion not lone to support ourselves but to attack, to spell forward.

“There volition beryllium acceptable pieces, which volition beryllium rather difficult, but we are prepared for that. I expect a large game, and it volition beryllium ‌great mentation for the adjacent 2 games successful the group.”

Just arsenic Kane is cardinal to England’s hopes of a heavy run, seasoned Modric is important to Croatia’s World Cup dreams. After playing a cardinal relation successful Croatia’s erstwhile World Cup campaigns, Modric is acceptable for his 5th and perchance last appearance.

Luka Modric volition beryllium making his 199th quality for Croatia connected Wednesday [File: Antonio Bronic/Reuters]

The ageing midfielder, besides the Balkan nation’s captain, inactive enjoys a hero’s presumption among a broadside that has often defied expectations connected the planetary stage. And by Dalic’s ain admission, the squad inactive relies heavy connected him, not slightest for his playmaking prowess.

“He means a lot, some arsenic a skipper of our squad and arsenic a person,” Dalic said of Modric, up of his 199th quality for the team.

“He is my close manus connected the pitch.

“It means a batch to the squad that we person a mates of older ⁠players alongside Luka who are starring the younger players, and they tin ⁠do precise bully things,” Dalic added.

“They are precise fortunate to person him, Luka, arsenic a relation exemplary successful however to combat for the nationalist squad jersey, and we’re fortunate to inactive person him with us.”

England vs Croatia prediction

Stats supplier Opta’s supercomputer has handed England a 55.9 percent probability of winning against Croatia, who person a 20.8 percent accidental of winning. There is simply a 23.3 percent probability of a draw.

Overall, England are 4th successful the database of rubric favourites – with a 10.02 percent probability – down Spain, France and Argentina.

England vs Croatia: Kickoff time, TV listing

In the United Kingdom, England vs Croatia kicks disconnected astatine 9pm BST and volition beryllium shown connected STV, STV Player, ITV1 and ITVX.

For fans successful Croatia, the lucifer is scheduled for 10pm and volition beryllium shown connected HRT.

In the United States, viewers tin tune into FOX One, Telemundo App, Telemundo Network, FOX and Peacock.

To cheque the TV listings for your country, caput to FIFA’s TV listing docket here.

(Al Jazeera)

How does the World Cup radical signifier work?

England, Croatia, Ghana and Panama are successful Group L.

The apical 2 teams from each of the 12 groups – on with the 8 champion third-placed teams – proceed to the adjacent phase, the circular of 32, which has been introduced astatine the World Cup for the archetypal time.

Form guide:

(Last 5 games, latest first)

England: W-W-L-D-W

Croatia: W-L-L-W-W

England person a somewhat amended grounds than Croatia successful their past 5 matches. Both teams person won 3 games each, but England mislaid and drew the different two, portion Croatia suffered defeats successful some games.

England won against Costa Rica and New Zealand successful pre-World Cup friendlies earlier this month, but mislaid to Japan successful an unexpected effect successful precocious March. Before that, they drew with Uruguay successful a affable and bushed Albania successful a World Cup qualifier.

Croatia won against Slovakia but fell to Belgium successful their World Cup warm-up matches, portion besides losing to Brazil successful a affable successful precocious March. But earlier that, they bushed Colombia successful a affable and won against Montenegro successful a World Cup qualifier.

England vs Croatia: Head-to-head

Wednesday volition beryllium the 12th gathering betwixt the 2 sides, with England holding a large vantage implicit Croatia successful their head-to-head record.

England person won six times against Croatia, who person won 3 times. Two matches ended successful a draw.

They person met astatine the World Cup 3 times before, with England losing their past tourney brushwood 2-1 astatine the 2018 World Cup semifinal successful Moscow.

Mario Mandzukic scored a extremity successful other clip to implicit Croatia’s come-from-behind triumph successful the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup against England [File: Franck Fife/AFP]

England vs Croatia: Team news

On Tuesday, England defender Tino Livramento was ruled retired of the tourney aft suffering a calf wounded and was replaced by Trevoh Chalobah. The Newcastle United right-back sustained the wounded during a grooming league astatine the team’s Kansas City basal connected Sunday.

No wounded concerns successful the Croatia camp.

England predicted XI

(4-2-3-1): Pickford; James, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane

Croatia predicted XI

(4-2-3-1): Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Vuskovic, Gvardiol; Modric, Kovacic; Pasalic, Kramaric, Perisic; Budimir