England and Croatia opened their Group L World Cup campaign at the Dallas Stadium, a first-day meeting that also marks Thomas Tuchel’s debut at a major tournament as England head coach.
The fixture carried weight on paper: England arrived having taken 24 points from 24 in qualifying while conceding no goals, and they closed their preparations with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in the final warm-up. Croatia came with veteran leadership — Luka Modric starting his fifth and final World Cup after 196 appearances for his country — and a coaching structure under Zlatko Dalic that has lasted more than nine years and guided Croatia to a 2018 final and a third-place finish at Qatar 2022.
Both sides were unbeaten in European qualifying, which frames them as the primary contenders for top spot in Group L. For England the event answers a basic question fans and analysts have been asking: can Tuchel translate domestic and qualifying form into tournament performance? For Croatia, the match tests whether Modric and a long-serving coaching setup can control a game against a team that finished qualifying as a defensive fortress.
There is a clear complication. England’s spotless qualifying record has been followed by doubts born in March friendlies played without Harry Kane — a draw with Uruguay and a loss to Japan left questions over balance and resilience. Kane’s club form is no small factor: he scored 61 goals for Bayern Munich in the season noted for this tournament, but England must show they perform the same under tournament pressure and without the automatic certainty that Kane’s presence usually provides.
Set pieces are an immediate subplot, and Josip Šutalo’s pre-match moment captured that risk: he rose at a corner and attempted an acrobatic first-time shot that stayed too high. Small as it was, the attempt underlined how Croatia can manufacture attacking opportunities from dead-ball situations and how Šutalo may be drawn into scoring positions in tight matches.
Practical timing detail for international viewers is narrow but precise: the supplementary report noted the match began at 3:00 a.m. on 18 June, Vietnamese time, with kickoff taking place at the Dallas Stadium. The opening game functions as the first competitive barometer in a short, three-game group where an early result can alter qualification scenarios.
What to watch from the first whistle: Tuchel’s chosen shape and whether England reproduce the defensive discipline that produced a clean qualifying sheet; whether Kane can convert his 61-goal domestic season into tournament goals; Modric’s control and how long his influence lasts over midfield tempo; and how Croatia’s set-piece routines bring players such as Šutalo into the attack. Those elements will determine whether the match opens as a low-scoring tactical contest or a game decided by individual moments.
The match resolves an open question rather than a settled story. Which England side appears — the one that shut out opponents in qualifying or the one that showed fracture lines without Kane in March — will be evident in Dallas, and Croatia’s experience under Dalic and Modric will be measured against Tuchel’s new tournament blueprint. The first result will shape the pecking order in Group L and set the tone for the teams’ next two group games.
