● World Cup 2026 Group L — England's fixtures: June 17 vs Croatia, June 23 vs Ghana, June 27 vs Panama. Source: football-data.org, Bundesliga.com, England Football.
Tuchel's England
Thomas Tuchel's reign began in March 2025 and, on paper, has been almost perfectly managed. Ten qualifying wins from ten, zero goals conceded, a squad rebuilt with purpose rather than sentiment. Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold — all left out. The selections caused noise. The results justified them.
The system is a 4-2-3-1 with an important wrinkle: both full-backs tuck into midfield during possession, creating numerical overloads in central areas and freeing the wide forwards to play higher without defensive exposure. Declan Rice is the foundation. Kane is the reference point. The space between them — the No.10 role — is occupied by Jude Bellingham when fit, and that "when fit" is the central question hanging over the entire tournament for England.
Bellingham underwent shoulder surgery after the Club World Cup and then suffered a serious hamstring injury in February 2026, missing England's March camp entirely. He has been included in the 26. Tuchel has publicly committed to him. He may start in Dallas on June 17, or he may not. That uncertainty affects every prediction that follows — a fully fit Bellingham in form is arguably England's most decisive individual player. Everything else about this England side is relatively known.
What is not in doubt: Harry Kane has just scored 36 Bundesliga goals and won the German title. Marcus Rashford has been revitalised at Barcelona. Bukayo Saka returned from a disrupted season to contribute at the crucial end of Arsenal's title run. Rice made 32 league appearances for a Premier League-winning side and created 36 chances. The squad is experienced, settled, and arriving at a World Cup in better collective form than England have managed in a generation.
Game 1: England vs Croatia — 17 June, AT&T Stadium, Dallas
This is the rematch nobody in England asked for but everybody knew was coming. Eight years after Luka Modric's Croatia eliminated England in the 2018 semi-final in Moscow, they meet again at the group stage. It is England's most loaded fixture of the three.
Head-to-Head
The 2018 result is the one that matters. England led through Kieran Trippier's free-kick after five minutes, controlled the first half, and still found a way to lose it. Ivan Perisic equalised. Mario Mandzukic scored in extra time. The image of Gareth Southgate walking towards the tunnel at the Luzhniki still surfaces in the football consciousness whenever these two meet.
Euro 2020 provided a measure of restoration: England won 1-0 at Wembley, Raheem Sterling scoring, and Modric was kept quiet. Tuchel's England are structurally better equipped to do that than Southgate's ever were — the pressing triggers, Rice's shadowing, and the speed of the wide players give Croatia less time and space than they enjoyed that night in Moscow.
Croatia's State of Play
Zlatko Dalic is taking a squad that is simultaneously the most experienced in Croatian history and showing clear signs of ageing at its core. Modric is 40 and will almost certainly play in some capacity — Dalic has shifted him into a No.10 role to reduce his physical workload, and he remains Croatia's most dangerous creative presence by distance. When he has 10 yards and time, he picks passes through defensive lines that no other player in this squad can. The job for Rice and whoever partners him is to ensure that 10 yards is never available.
The critical fitness questions surround Josko Gvardiol (fractured shin in January, returned to Man City training in mid-May) and Mateo Kovacic (Achilles issues throughout the season). Gvardiol at full fitness is one of the best defenders in world football; a Gvardiol operating at 70% is a different calculation entirely. Kovacic is Croatia's ball-carrier in transition — if he is not right, the link between Modric and the forward line fractures. Both are doubts rather than absences, but both matter enormously to how this game plays out.
Andrej Kramaric leads the line having scored six qualifying goals and contributed 14 goals and 6 assists for Hoffenheim in 2025-26. He is their primary scoring threat and, at 34, one of a generation of experienced players for whom this tournament carries genuine personal weight. Ivan Perisic at 37 still delivers from wide positions. This Croatia side is not a pushover.
The Key Battle: Rice vs Modric
The entire midfield contest reduces to this. If Rice presses Modric effectively, forces quick decisions, and denies him the seconds he needs to pick a pass, Croatia's attacking structure collapses. If Modric is allowed to settle, to dictate tempo, to shift the ball before Rice arrives — he will find Kane's defenders wanting. Tuchel will have studied this. Rice will know the assignment. The question is whether England's pressing can sustain that intensity in the Dallas heat, across 90 minutes, against a player who has spent his entire career making pressing look slightly futile.
England's biggest attacking opportunity runs through the right channel. Croatia's left side — Perisic at 37, and potentially a less-than-fit Gvardiol — against Saka is the mismatch that Tuchel will target. Saka one-on-one in space, running at a creaking defensive flank, is Croatia's most dangerous defensive exposure. If Gvardiol is not at full pace, that corridor gets targeted early and often.
Game 2: England vs Ghana — 23 June, Gillette Stadium, Boston
The only previous meeting between these two at senior level was a 1-1 friendly at Wembley in March 2011 — Andy Carroll's first England goal, Asamoah Gyan equalising in stoppage time. That result, combined with Ghana's World Cup history, is enough to know they will not come to Foxborough simply to take part.
Ghana's History at World Cups
Ghana have one of the most emotionally charged World Cup histories of any nation. In 2010, they became the first African side to reach a quarter-final since Senegal in 2002, and came within a penalty of becoming the first to reach a semi-final entirely. Luis Suarez's deliberate handball on the line in the final minute of extra time against Uruguay — Asamoah Gyan's penalty hitting the crossbar — remains one of the most controversial and gut-wrenching moments in the tournament's history. They lost the shoot-out. They returned in 2014 and 2022 without matching that quarter-final peak.
In 2026 they make their fifth appearance. The generation that was watching that penalty against Uruguay is now the squad.
Ghana's State of Play
Carlos Queiroz was appointed in April 2026 — less than two months before the tournament — and brings the kind of experience that a late appointment demands: he has managed ten international sides including Portugal, Iran twice, Colombia, Egypt and South Korea. He builds sides that are hard to break down and dangerous on the counter. The question is how much of his structure Ghana can actually implement with so little preparation time. His first tournament game with this squad is essentially the World Cup itself.
The fixture pivots on Mohammed Kudus. The Tottenham midfielder suffered a significant quad injury in January and had a setback in his recovery. The latest indications are cautiously optimistic — no surgery required, progressing in rehabilitation — but his availability for June 23 is genuinely uncertain. With Kudus fit, Ghana have a creative, technically gifted midfield presence capable of shifting the contest. Without him, England's job becomes considerably more predictable.
What is not in doubt is the pace and quality available in wide areas. Antoine Semenyo (Man City) is their most consistent attacking performer and the player Tuchel's defenders will be most aware of. Inaki Williams is physically imposing with genuine pace. Jordan Ayew captains a group that includes Thomas Partey (Villarreal) and Fatawu Issahaku (Leicester). This is not a thin squad.
The Key Battle: Semenyo and Williams vs England's Centre-Backs
Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa will face the most direct physical examination of the group stage in this fixture. Semenyo's pace, directness and shooting range against Konsa's recovery speed is the contest on which Ghana's best chance depends. If they can find the space to run at England's back line in transition — particularly if England are stretched from pushing forward — the quality is there to score.
England's response is to avoid being stretched in the first place. Tuchel's system is designed around compact defensive shape when out of possession: both full-backs tucked in, Rice sitting, the wide forwards tracking back. Ghana will look to press high and create turnovers. If they can force England into errors in the middle third, Semenyo and Williams have the pace to punish it immediately.
England's set-piece threat should be decisive in this fixture. Guehi and Konsa both attack the ball well. Dan Burn at 6ft 7in is a viable set-piece option. Kane takes penalties. Ghana's defensive set-piece organisation under a manager with eight weeks in the job will be tested.
Game 3: Panama vs England — 27 June, MetLife Stadium, New Jersey
The last time these two met, England were 5-0 up at half-time. Harry Kane scored a hat-trick, the third of which came when Ruben Loftus-Cheek's shot deflected in off his heel and he claimed it without hesitation. Panama's consolation — scored by Felipe Baloy with the clock reading 78 minutes and the board reading 5-0 — was their first ever goal at a World Cup. The stadium celebrated it.
That scoreline is unlikely to be repeated. Panama in 2026 are a meaningfully better side than Panama in 2018. Thomas Christiansen has managed them since 2020 and built something genuine: 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup finalists, Copa America 2024 quarter-finalists, and World Cup qualification achieved without a single defeat. They are organised, well-drilled, and built around a system rather than hope.
Panama's State of Play
The system is a 4-2-3-1 with Anibal Godoy anchoring defensively and Adir Carrasquilla — 2023 Gold Cup Best Player — providing the creative outlet. The most dangerous individual is Amir Murillo (Marseille): a right-back who pushes aggressively into attacking positions and contributes goals and assists from deep. Christiansen's Panama is asymmetric in attack — Murillo's overlapping runs are the primary source of crossing and combination play on the right. Whoever starts at left-back for England needs to track him diligently.
Jose Fajardo leads the line with 17 international goals, and Panama are genuinely dangerous from set pieces — Carrasquilla and Murillo deliver. This is their threat and their best route to something from the game.
The Rotation Question
By June 27, England should already be through. Tuchel will face a choice between keeping momentum with his first-choice XI or rotating to protect key players ahead of the knockout rounds. Given the squad depth — Watkins, Toney, Madueke, Mainoo all available and capable — a partial rotation is likely. England with four or five changes are still comfortably better than Panama. But a heavily rotated side against a Christiansen-drilled opponent, in a 90,000-seat stadium in New Jersey where the crowd will not be neutral, creates the conditions for an uncomfortable evening if concentration drops early.
Panama will not be chasing a result if already eliminated — which, given they play Ghana and Croatia first, is probable. That freedom to play without consequence can produce either a spirited performance or a passive one. In front of what will be one of the most intense CONCACAF-diaspora crowds of the tournament, instinct says the former.
Predicted Final Group Table
Based on those three results — England beating Croatia 2-1, England beating Ghana 3-1, England beating Panama 3-0 — and projecting the other fixtures (Croatia 2-1 Ghana, Croatia 3-0 Panama, Ghana 2-1 Panama), the final Group L table looks like this:
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🏴 England Q | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 9 |
| 2 | 🇭🇷 Croatia Q | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 6 |
| 3 | 🇬🇭 Ghana | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 3 |
| 4 | 🇵🇦 Panama | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | -7 | 0 |
Q = Advance to Round of 32. Top two from each group progress automatically.
England finish top of the group. Croatia's experience, Modric's final tournament and Kramaric's goals are enough to see them through in second. Ghana's pace and Semenyo's quality earn them a result somewhere in the group — probably against Panama — but the absence of a fit Kudus proves decisive in both of their losses. Panama leave without a point but not without a performance, particularly in New Jersey.
The variable that changes most of this: a fit and in-form Jude Bellingham. If he plays all three games at his 2024 peak, England's ceiling in this group — and beyond it — rises considerably. If he is managed carefully or misses games, Tuchel has cover but not a replacement. That is the thread worth pulling as June 11 approaches.