PREVIEW: England get World Cup underway with eye-catching Croatia clash | OneFootball

England will kick off their World Cup campaign this evening against Croatia, as Group L finally gets underway.

As many will remember, the Croat’s broke English hearts back in 2018 when Mario Mandzukic’s 109th-minute winner knocked England out in the World Cup semi-final after taking an early lead through Kieran Trippier’s infamous free-kick.

However, in the two meetings since then, the Three Lions have come out on top, picking up a 2-1 win at Wembley in the 2018 Nations League and a 1-0 win at the same venue to get their Euro 2020 campaign off to the perfect start.

Both sides will be expecting to advance from the group stage at this tournament, with Ghana and Panama as their other opponents. In the FIFA World Rankings, England and Croatia both sit in the top 15, whilst Ghana and Panama are 73rd and 34th, respectively.

The two sides qualified with relative ease. In fact, England won all eight games without so much as conceding a goal, whilst Croatia dropped just two points and conceded only four goals themselves.

England have only failed to score on one occasion since Thomas Tuchel took over and Croatia have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last six games, both stats that certainly makes England the favourites for this eye-catching clash.

Various selection headaches await Tuchel, but perhaps none more notable than who to start in the number 10 role. With Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers at his disposal, it will be intriguing to see who Tuchel starts.

Luka Modric will almost certainly start and skipper the Croatia team. The 40-year-old AC Milan midfielder found the net in their last outing before the tournament, a 2-1 friendly win over Slovenia.

The game will get underway at 21:00 (BST) with live coverage available on ITV and ITVX.