England
4–2
Croatia
England defeated Croatia 4-2 at Dallas Stadium in a chaotic Group L opener marking Thomas Tuchel's debut as England head coach. Harry Kane opened the scoring from a penalty in the 12th minute (retake after Croatia goalkeeper encroachment) and added a second from a corner in the 42nd minute. Croatia twice levelled — Martin Baturina (36') with a fine strike and Petar Musa (45+5') with a well-worked move — to send the game to half-time at 2-2. Jude Bellingham restored England's lead two minutes after the break (47'), and Marcus Rashford sealed it with a fine finish (85'). Kane equalled Gary Lineker's England record of 10 World Cup goals. A perfect call: all four of our AI models landed — Claude (England or draw), ChatGPT (over 2.5 goals), Gemini (England over 1.5) and DeepSeek (Croatia to score) were all correct in a six-goal contest. The fifth perfect prediction of the tournament.
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  England | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 4 |
| 2 |  Ghana | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 4 |
| 3 |  Croatia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 3 |
| 4 |  Panama | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
England's defensive solidity and clean-sheet habit point to a quiet game for an inconsistent Croatia attack.
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