England v Croatia | World Cup Group L | 17 June 2026

Weegie Addick

That was fun in the end. Bit worrying re Rice coming off? 

carly burn

SoundAsa£ said:

Strange as it may seem , if I’m not mistaken, I reckon Jordan Pickford had more touches of the ball than any other player on the pitch.🫢

And nearly all of them was a bit of a heart in mouth moment. Every pass he makes looks like it's with his weaker foot. 
If I was the oppo watching that, for future games I'd be on him like a shot 

robroy

arny23394 said:

Guehi and Rashford should be starting next game. Admittedly only seen Gordon play about 15 - 20 times, but he’s never ever impressed me - how on earth has he got a move to Barcelona? 

Guehi must start over stones. Rashford should be in in, Gordon benched. They can all make an impact. 

North Lower Neil

arny23394 said:

Guehi and Rashford should be starting next game. Admittedly only seen Gordon play about 15 - 20 times, but he’s never ever impressed me - how on earth has he got a move to Barcelona? 

Same.

Plus feel like the best use of him might ve late on, pace v tired defences.

MrWalker

I'd like to see Roy Keene rested.

jimmymelrose

robroy said:

arny23394 said:

Guehi and Rashford should be starting next game. Admittedly only seen Gordon play about 15 - 20 times, but he’s never ever impressed me - how on earth has he got a move to Barcelona? 

Guehi must start over stones. Rashford should be in in, Gordon benched. They can all make an impact. 

They both bring different attributes. Gordon is better as a winger putting in crosses, whereas Rashford is like a forward in a wide position, perfectly demonstrated by his goal this evening.

fenaddick

Weegie Addick said:

That was fun in the end. Bit worrying re Rice coming off? 

He's played 65+ games this season already, totalling over 4,000 minutes. He cannot be expected to play 90 minutes every match, he'll break down if we try that

North Lower Neil

MrWalker said:

I'd like to see Roy Keene rested.

But then you'd not get to judge how quickly his Steve McClaren hair island is getting cut adrift.

Blucher

A big improvement in the second half. After the fillip of Bellingham’s early goal, he and England really took the game by the scruff of the neck and we could have had a couple more in that crazily entertaining 15 or 20 minutes.

I thought the game settled down after that and we never looked under threat from a ageing Croatian team that seemed to tire. The subs gave us a bit of late impetus and we opened them up on a couple of occasions as they had to push men forward prior to Rashford’s nicely constructed and finished clincher.

The first game is often difficult in these tournaments and, notwithstanding a poor first half, a 4-2 win against our main group opponents and the 11th ranked team in the world is an excellent outcome.

Weegie Addick

fenaddick said:

Weegie Addick said:

That was fun in the end. Bit worrying re Rice coming off? 

He's played 65+ games this season already, totalling over 4,000 minutes. He cannot be expected to play 90 minutes every match, he'll break down if we try that

I’m concerned that he has a knock and Tuchel glossed over it when asked post match, after saying he would not usually take him off. They also said on commentary that he was limping.

EugenesAxe

Who writes BBC's banners?

Starinnaddick

Sword65pf said:

CaptainRobbo said:

Rothko said:

Can see why clubs are going to spend huge amounts on Elliott Anderson, quality 

We got more chance of signing Fred Elliott

Fella called billy elliot has good feet apparently 

Believe it or not there was a left winger called Billy Elliott who got a number of England Caps in the fifties or sixties. I remember seeing him play for Burnley and Sunderland. 

2121

Bellingham was class
stones worries me, and the defence generally
pickford was a bit extravagant i thought and not in a good way! 

Cant complain tho! 

DamoNorthStand

Weegie Addick said:

That was fun in the end. Bit worrying re Rice coming off? 

Rice confirms in an interview with ITV that he is fine, just a precaution to keep him fresh…. Ready to go for Ghana 

Weegie Addick

DamoNorthStand said:

Weegie Addick said:

That was fun in the end. Bit worrying re Rice coming off? 

Rice confirms in an interview with ITV that he is fine, just a precaution to keep him fresh…. Ready to go for Ghana 

Thanks. A relief!

Exiled_Addick

Had a few of my non-British colleagues out here tell me it was the best game of the tournament so far. Very refreshing to be told that by some neutrals rather than England were boring like I have been used to in recent tournaments (which, admittedly was an upgrade on England are shit!). 

stoneroses19

Well worth the 3am wake up to watch that game, especially the second half, where we played some beautiful football at times. 

Defence definitely needs to become more confident together as obviously our weak point, but I think it will help to have had our most difficult group game (on paper) first, as now Tuchel and team are very aware what needs to improve going forward in this tournament. 

Personally, I’d stick with the same 11 for Ghana. Tuchel has decided that’s his best 11 (whether that’s down to Saka fitness or not) at this time and the more minutes they get together, the stronger we will be. 

Carter

That was a brilliant game to watch 

Defensively we need the rough edges knocking off but I loved watching both sides move the ball quickly, attack the game. Croatias keeper may not have another game as good as that again and he let in 4! 

Chris_from_Sidcup

In terms of keeping the players fresh, i assume if we beat Ghana then we'll rotate v Panama as we'd only need a draw.

There are 8 days between Ghana and the last 32 match.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Last night is the first time in 24 years that England have defeated a top-15 ranked team at the World Cup.

Last time was 1-0 v Argentina in 2002.

fenaddick

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

In terms of keeping the players fresh, i assume if we beat Ghana then we'll rotate v Panama as we'd only need a draw.

There are 8 days between Ghana and the last 32 match.

Kind of have the opposite problem to normal, players need some kind of game work. We’re playing another behind closed doors game today for those who didn’t get many minutes 

DamoNorthStand

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

In terms of keeping the players fresh, i assume if we beat Ghana then we'll rotate v Panama as we'd only need a draw.

There are 8 days between Ghana and the last 32 match.

Beat Ghana and with a last 32 surely 6 points and you’re through already.

DamoNorthStand

Also as a side point, now only 8 points behind Spain from going third in the world in the world rankings after that match.

cantersaddick

Whilst I agree that our defense definitely need ti get used to the setup and playing together and there is plenty to be done on the training ground to improve before the next match. I don't think we were as shakey defensively as made out. Yes there were a couple of moments when we were a bit slow on the ball and nearly got caught in possession but it was a clear plan to try and play through their press to open up the space. We saw in the 2nd half when it worked those passing triangles/diamonds on either side of the pitch were incredibly effective at starting attacks. We need to do it less in central positions and learn when to take a safety first option. But ultimately their 2 goals were both incredible bits of play with a decent amount of luck thrown in. Very unlikely to get 2 of those go in against you again in the tournament. 

Ultimately with the defensive players we have available to us we have a choice of the Southgate safety first setup or this setup which will at times leave us exposed. Surprising myself by saying this but let's trust Tuchel to get it right.

MuttleyCAFC

I think we can take the biggest positive from the fact that Croatia looked a decent side. I think their passing accuracy was up there with the best in the tournament so far, so that we beat them in the way we did, we have to be pretty optimistic.

SuedeAdidas

Chris_from_Sidcup

DamoNorthStand said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

In terms of keeping the players fresh, i assume if we beat Ghana then we'll rotate v Panama as we'd only need a draw.

There are 8 days between Ghana and the last 32 match.

Beat Ghana and with a last 32 surely 6 points and you’re through already.

I meant in terms of winning the group. We'd obviously already be through but would technically need a point v Panama to secure top spot.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Wasn't too impressed with Gordon, he was fairly anonymous. Rashford was a lot better when he came on but it helped that the game was stretched at that point so he had far more space than Gordon did.

Gordon is a good player but i'm struggling to understand how Barcelona turned down the chance to sign Rashford for 30m, to sign Gordon for 70m.

carly burn

agim

Bold from Tuchel bringing on Rogers, Saka and Rashford at 3-2 but I like it, replacing players like for like rather than the sitting back that Southgate used to do. I think our defence will cost us against the better teams but after that showing at least the tournament should be fun