Arlington, Jun 18: A brace from Harry Kane and second-half goals by Jude Bellingham and substitute Marcus Rashford helped England kick off their FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign with a thrilling 4-2 win over Croatia in Group L here at the Dallas Stadium on Thursday (IST).

A chaotic first half brought four goals, with England twice leading through two Kane strikes and Croatia responding through Martin Baturina and Petar Musa. The Three Lions prevailed thanks to a strong second-half display rewarded by goals at either end of it by Bellingham and Rashford.

Kane has now scored the most penalties (excluding shootouts) in World Cup history, with five.

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Croatia started brightly with Declan Rice having to make an important intervention to block a dangerous low cross after Josip Sutalo had earlier found some space at a second-minute corner.

England’s first real threat came when Noni Madueke made inroads down the right, and after the ball found its way to Kane in the box, he took advantage of an inch of space to shoot on the turn, with his effort deflected wide.

From the ensuing corner, Madueke reacted quickest to a bouncing ball, nipping in ahead of Luka Modric before the Croatian skipper brought him down while trying to clear.

Kane stepped up and had his initial penalty effort saved by Dominik Livakovic, but an encroachment from Josko Gvardiol saw the spot-kick retaken. Given a second attempt, Kane fired low to the same corner, opening the scoring on 12 minutes.

Petar Musa showed that Croatia could prove dangerous, when he almost found some space in the England box, but Bellingham did well to get back and force a goal kick.

Croatia’s equaliser came somewhat against the run of play, a brilliant right-footed finish from Martin Baturina that Jordan Pickford could only get a fingertip to after an acrobatic dive.

England responded from a corner, with Kane left unmarked and making a late run before heading home. But just as it seemed England would go into half time with a lead, Croatia equalised for the second time.

Deep in stoppage time, Ivan Perisic found some space and knocked it to Musa, who slotted it home to make it 2-2 at the break.

England came out in the second half as a team transformed, taking the lead for the third time within two minutes of the restart. Bellingham found space down the right and had no hesitation as he drove into box before shooting into the far corner past Livakovic.

From there, England piled forward in search of a fourth goal, Bellingham almost immediately forcing a good save out of the Croatian ‘keeper before Nico O’Reilly headed wide after finding some space from the ensuing corner.

Rice drove forward and tried to bend the ball home, his shot a little too central to trouble the keeper, who then made a remarkable triple save, the pick of which was a strong hand to keep out an O’Reilly header.

It was all England at this stage, with Kane next to threaten as Livakovic had to get down low to deny him. But while they had not pulled clear, Croatia remained dangerous, with Pickford forced into a vital save 15 minutes from time from Marco Pasalic’s shot at goal.

Djed Spence was introduced for Bellingham and almost matched the man he had replaced, making a brilliant run onto a ball on the right, with Livakovic again on hand to keep England out.

But he had no answer when Rashford was found in space and cut inside the final defender before sliding the ball home to make the game safe.

(IANS)