England's World Cup Bid: Tuchel and the Ghosts of 2018

The waiting is over. England walk into the heat of Dallas and straight into their past, opening their 2026 World Cup campaign against Croatia in a Group L fixture loaded with old scars and new expectation.

Eight years on from that shattering semi-final defeat in Russia, the cast lists have shifted, the managers have changed, but the storyline still crackles with tension. Thomas Tuchel, now the man charged with turning England’s promise into a trophy, starts his tenure on the biggest stage with a fixture that needs no extra selling.

He has almost a full deck to play with. Twenty-five of his 26-man squad are available, with only late call-up Trevoh Chalobah not yet ready for selection. It gives Tuchel options all over the pitch and, crucially, a focal point he can rely on.

Harry Kane will lead the line, as he has so often, stepping into a tournament where the marquee names have already begun to stamp their authority. This stage suits him. The pressure, the scrutiny, the demand for goals from the first whistle – it all circles back to the captain’s shoulders.

One decision, though, hangs over Tuchel’s team sheet like a cloud. Bukayo Saka. Fit enough to be here, but not yet free of the injury that has stalked his build-up. England know his value: the direct running, the calm in tight spaces, the end product in the biggest games. Tuchel knows he must manage him carefully. Start him and risk aggravation? Hold him back and risk blunting England’s edge?

That call could define the tone of England’s opening night.

Across the halfway line stands a Croatia side that looks familiar only in flashes. The core that broke English hearts in Moscow has largely moved on, the team reshaped and, on paper at least, diminished from the stubborn, streetwise unit that once dragged itself into a World Cup final.

Yet one figure endures. Luka Modric, still the heartbeat, still dictating rhythm from midfield. His presence alone keeps Croatia relevant in a group that also includes Ghana and Panama, nations who will test legs, lungs and nerve across three demanding fixtures.

This is not the snarling, peak-era Croatia of 2018, but it is not a side England can treat lightly. Modric’s touch, his angles, his ability to slow a game to his tempo or rip it open with a single pass – those are the qualities that once turned an English dream into a long, bitter summer.

Now the stage shifts from Moscow to Dallas, from memory to opportunity. Tuchel arrives with ideas, with authority, with a squad deep enough to go the distance. The margin for error, though, remains as thin as ever.

England begin against a name that still stings. How they handle that history may tell us just how far this new era can really go.