England vs Croatia - 17/06/2026

Greg Palmer

greg.gabsbitesizeblogs@gmail.com

Well… here we go… another few weeks of stress and anxiety as we watch our beloved England in the World Cup… although, this time it feels a little… different…

What I mean is, normally you’ve all the hype, all the songs about it coming home!! 2026, however, is not like that… not that I’ve seen anyway! There is a strange ‘quiet’ surrounding England… is this by design? Perhaps we’ve finally learnt not to apply so much pressure to our boys… such expectation!

“You play in the best league in the world, most of you, some of you are described as ‘World Class’ the ‘Best in that position’ and we expect to see that!”

We need to let them play!

And in the second half of our opening game, it appears we did…

The Match

The first half definitely had England fans thinking, ‘same old, same old!’ As we watched unforced errors, nervous play and what looked to be an element of disbelief.

A penalty! Bit of encroachment… another penalty! 1-0… on Kane we depend!

Croatia equalise… “Here we go again!” 1-1

Rice Rice baby! The usual pin point corner, unmarked bullet header from Kane… 2-1… let’s just get to half time…

Superb ball nodded down by the old pro Perisic and Musa scores an emotional equaliser before the break… 2-2

Half Time

Now here we are… England fans at half time grabbing another beer, dissecting the game, ‘we didn’t do this right, we didn’t do that… he should be off, he should be playing deep, we shouldn’t mess around at the back…’ you could hear it echoing across pubs and throughout homes across England… the unnerving air… the disbelief creeping in…

Why are we playing like this?!?

Enter Thomas Tuchel… “If we lose… we lose our way” are his apparent words to the team…

I love it!

Tuchel basically telling the team… just play… play like you mean it, play like you want to be here, play like no one is watching… you’re over the park, jumpers for goalposts, expressing yourselves… 'Just Play!!' is the message…

The players nod in agreement, the air shifts, the anxiety, the nerves, they fade away… I’d like to think nothing more was said, the players just looked at each other, smiled, with the thought of ‘Watch this…’ as they head out for the second half…

Second Half

It didn’t take long… the fans watching on… “My word… what did Tuchel say at half time…” as we watch England drive, push themselves, chase every ball, mean every pass… and Croatia couldn’t cope with it… the passion full, the nervous energy gone!

Bellingham… driving, as though the weight of England fell behind him, not pushing him down but pushing him forward as he fires in England's 3rd!!

Excitement followed by an eerie silence… (at least where I was sitting) as I’m wondering what was said, the formation and players were the same, but the football was different!

England continued to press, ‘all or nothing’ springs to mind… a far deeper focus… an excellent move by some of the substitutes and Rashford sits down the defender to roll in England's 4th! 4-2…

Calm… maybe an element of understanding flowing around the stadium like a cool breeze… England look comfortable… Happy… players smiling with a perfect pass, rallying the crowd when winning a corner…

I feel like the England team in the second half understood the assignment…

Just Play!

And England will always be behind you…

Final score 4-2