Match Centre: England v Croatia
Everything you need to know ahead of the Three Lions' 2026 FIFA World Cup opener in Dallas
England v Croatia
Group L fixture
FIFA World Cup 2026
Wednesday 17 June 2026, 9pm BST
Dallas Stadium
Croatia in profile
Nickname: Vatreni
Coach: Zlatko Dalić
Captain: Luka Modrić
Last time out: England 1-0 Croatia
Raheem Sterling scored the winner in England's first group match at UEFA EURO 2020 at Wembley Stadium
Head to head
In our eleven games to date, the Three Lions have won six and Croatia have won three, with two draws along the way.
June’s game will be the fourth time we’ve met Croatia at a major tournament with the most recent being our opening group-stage game of EURO 2020, when a Raheem Sterling goal at Wembley proved to be the winner
Before that, there was the 2-1 semi-final extra-time defeat at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, while our first major tournament meeting came with a 4-2 victory in the group stages at UEFA EURO 2004 when an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney bagged a memorable brace.
Out first meeting with Croatia came 30 years ago, when a side featuring the likes of Davor Šuker, Robert Prosinečki, Igor Štimac, Alen Bokšić and Slaven Bilić visited Wembley in April 1996, in the build up to the EUROs held in England later that year.
From the archive: England 2-1 Croatia
A thrilling comeback at Wembley in the inaugural UEFA Nations League
England Squad News
Ticket Information
How to watch or stream
England v Croatia at the World Cup will be shown live on ITV1 in the UK.