World Cup

England vs Croatia World Cup 2026 prediction

England kick off their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign in Arlington, Texas on Wednesday night against Croatia – the penultimate match of the opening round of games.

Thomas Tuchel’s side head to North America after a perfect record in qualifying that saw the Three Lions win eight out of eight, score 22 and not concede a single goal. Albania, Serbia, Latvia and Andorra were the other nations that made up the qualifying group.

The German head coach received a lot of criticism from fans for leaving out Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Maguire from his squad. The former two were creative options in midfield, Alexander-Arnold being Real Madrid’s right-back, and Maguire being an experienced centre-back who has had two good seasons at Manchester United.

Croatia also coasted through qualifying, picking up 22 of a possible 24 points and finishing six points ahead of Czechia in second place. Their only dropped points was a 0-0 draw in Prague. The Faroe Islands, Montenegro and Gibraltar made up the rest of the group.

There’s a of experienced players named by Zlatko Dalić to battle the heat in North America. Luka Modric is 40 and expected to start. 37-year-old Ivan Perisic, 35-year-old Andrej Kramaric and 32-year-old Mateo Kovacic could all support the former Real Madrid talisman in midfield and attack in their opener.

Croatia have a number of defenders playing in the top leagues to choose from too – including Josip Stanišić of Bayern Munich, Manchester City’s Joško Gvardiol, Josip Šutalo of Ajax and Luka Vušković of Hamburger SV.

England’s strength is clearly in attack, with Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze and Jude Bellingham. I don’t see England going all the way because of their defence. So either they need to take this game to Croatia or setup very well tactically to protect Jordan Pickford.

I’d prefer better odds on England but you can take them in-play to be confident. Wouldn’t surprise me if there were a few goals in this game too.

Best bet: England to win is 3/4 with Bet365
Value bet: Over 2.5 goals is 1/1 with Bet365