England retook the lead immediately after the restart in their World Cup 2026 opener against Croatia after a brilliant run and finish from Jude Bellingham.
A dramatic start saw Luke Modric foul Noni Madueke, with Kane missing initially, but a retake was ordered by VAR and the Bayern striker made no mistake second time.
But Como star Martin Baturina’s beautiful strike pulled Croatia level with Jordan Pickford well beaten.
But Thomas Tuchel’s side retook the lead after Kane found space at a corner before thumping home a header after Declan Rice’s delivery. And a gripping first half saw Croatia level once more after Petar Musa’s smart finish.
But 90 seconds into the second half, Bellingham was too powerful down the right and finished from a narrow angle to hand England a 3-2 lead. Follow all the action from Dallas below:
England 3-2 Croatia
Another half-chance for England as Rice looks to curl one into the far corner, but Livakovic is equal to it.
‘Bellingham was never passing that’
Reaction to Bellingham’s goal from Lawrence Ostlere, who’s in place at the Dallas Stadium:
“Bellingham was never passing that, was he? Eyes on the goalkeeper all the way, and a great finish off the post. Then, assistant Anthony Barry came out of his technical area as Croatia kicked off to urge England upfield to press the Croatians, and it almost paid off, with another big chance for Bellingham. England have their tails up.”
England 3-2 Croatia
CLOSE! Two great chances for England in as many minutes!
Bellingham is the first to go close but his effort is too close to Livakovic in goal.
From the corner, the ball in finds O’Reilly unmarked at the back post, but he can only direct his low header narrowly wide!
GOAL! England 3-2 Croatia (Bellingham, 47′)
GOAL! Anthony Barry will be happier with that!
England are ahead again after great work from Jude Bellingham.
James squares it to Anderson in the England half and the midfielder clips a great ball into the right-wing channel to Bellingham.
He drives towards the box and a great run from Madueke takes away another defender, leaving Bellingham to get away from Pasalic before driving a low finish into the far corner via the post!
‘Complicated and confusing half’
Some punchy comments from England assistant coach Anthony Barry at half-time:
“A complicated and confusing first half from us, really, I think a lot of nervous energy early on. Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.
“From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps, so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.
“Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns, and yeah, we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.
“We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment of the gears open, allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we could see the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at halftime,” he added.
KICK-OFF! England 2-2 Croatia
Croatia get us started in the second half! What does the next 45 minutes have in store?
HALF-TIME! England 2-2 Croatia
It’s been an entertaining half of football in Dallas, but England will be gutted they didn’t enter the break in the lead after losing their concentration at a key moment late on.
The Three Lions have looked the better of the two sides but two defensive lapses – and admittedly two great goals from Croatia – mean it’s level at half-time.
Tuchel’s side have plenty to do if they want to take three points from their opener, though they’ll believe they’re the better side, so they just need to show it in these next 45 minutes.
We’ll be back underway soon.
Harry Kane equals all-time England World Cup record after first-half double against Croatia
The England captain, playing at his third World Cup, opened the scoring in Dallas after scoring a retaken penalty.
His first effort was saved, but Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was penalised after a VAR review for moving off his line too early, plus Croat defender Josko Gvardiol encroached in the penalty area.
HALF-TIME! England 2-2 Croatia
Reaction to that first half from Lawrence Ostlere, who’s in place at the Dallas Stadium:
“Well, that was quite a half of football. Lots for Thomas Tuchel to address at half-time. England looked promising in attack but were messy defensively and lacked the final pass and finish, which can’t be said for Croatia – they were clinical and that second goal was one of the best so far at the World Cup.
“Are we watching the game of the World Cup so far?”
