Group L Deep-Dive: England, Croatia, Ghana & Panama

Group L delivers one of WC 2026’s clearest narratives: a heavily fancied England side, a Croatia generation playing its final tournament, and two CONCACAF-CAF dark horses with a path through. For Aussie viewers, the matchdays open with friendly AEST kickoffs — most fixtures land in the morning window, making this a group worth setting the alarm for.

Dedicated country profiles are now live for England, Croatia, Ghana, and Panama. The four pages cover each nation’s history, qualifying path, and 2026 squad outlook — useful background before kickoff.

England: Tuchel’s Three Lions Eye History

England arrive in North America under their second German head coach in the modern era. Thomas Tuchel — the 2021 Champions League winner with Chelsea — took charge on 1 January 2025, succeeding Gareth Southgate after consecutive Euro final defeats in 2020 and 2024. The early returns have been decisive: England were the first European nation to qualify for WC 2026, going unbeaten through their UEFA group with 5–0 wins over Serbia and Latvia among the highlights.

Captain Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) anchors the side as England’s all-time leading scorer with 78 goals, having overtaken Wayne Rooney’s record of 53 in March 2023. The squad core blends the 2018–2024 Southgate spine — Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka — with newer faces like Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Marc Guéhi. England’s last World Cup victory was 30 July 1966 at Wembley, with Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick against West Germany still the only one ever scored in a final.

Aussie viewing window: England vs Croatia opens the group on Thu 18 Jun, 6:00am AEST at AT&T Stadium, Dallas — a true alarm-setter for the biggest brand fixture of matchday one.

Croatia: Modrić’s Last Stand

This is, almost certainly, Luka Modrić’s final World Cup. The 40-year-old captain — Ballon d’Or winner in 2018 — moved from Real Madrid to AC Milan in July 2025 with the explicit aim of staying sharp for a third consecutive World Cup tournament. Croatia have made every World Cup matter since their 1998 debut: third place that year (Davor Šuker’s Golden Boot), runners-up in 2018 (lost 2–4 to France in Moscow), and third place again at Qatar 2022 (beat Morocco 2–1 in the play-off).

Head coach Zlatko Dalić — the longest-serving Croatia manager in history, in charge since 7 October 2017 — has guided the side through this generation’s full arc. Croatia clinched their 2026 finals place with a 3–1 home win over the Faroe Islands on 13 November 2025, navigating a UEFA qualifying group (with Czech Republic, Montenegro, Faroe Islands and Gibraltar) that conceded only a single draw. The 2018 final remains the smallest-population side ever to reach a senior World Cup final — Croatia’s roughly 4.1 million inhabitants.

The squad’s identity remains tied to its midfield: Modrić alongside Mateo Kovačić, with Joško Gvardiol the rising centre-back leader. The red-and-white šahovnica checkerboard kit — taken from the Croatian coat of arms — is among the tournament’s most recognisable.

Ghana: Black Stars Under New Management

Ghana’s road to North America took a sharp turn in April. After friendly defeats by Austria and Germany in March 2026, the Ghana Football Association dismissed Otto Addo — the first coach to guide Ghana to two World Cup qualifications (2022 and 2026) — and on 14 April 2026 appointed Portuguese veteran Carlos Queiroz with just over two months until kickoff. Queiroz inherits a squad that topped CAF Group I unbeaten with 25 points in qualification, and which will appear at its fifth World Cup (after 2006, 2010, 2014, 2022).

The 2010 quarter-final in South Africa remains the high-water mark: Ghana came within a Luis Suárez handball — and an Asamoah Gyan extra-time penalty miss — of becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final. Gyan is the team’s all-time top scorer (51 goals), with André Ayew the most-capped Ghana international (120). The nickname “Black Stars” references the symbol of pan-African independence on the Ghanaian flag.

Ghana’s principal narrative for Australian viewers is timing: a mid-cycle managerial change is a serious test of squad cohesion, and Queiroz — formerly of Iran, Egypt, Colombia, Portugal — has tournament experience but limited preparation runway.

Panama: Building on 2018

Panama’s WC 2026 berth is the second in the nation’s history, after a memorable 2018 debut in Russia. Felipe Baloy’s late goal in that tournament’s 1–6 defeat to England — Panama’s first ever World Cup goal — remains a cornerstone of Panamanian footballing memory. Eight years on, the team returns under the longest-serving coach in its history: Thomas Christiansen, the Danish-born former Bundesliga top scorer (Bochum 2002–03) who has been in charge since 2020 and qualified the side unbeaten across the second and third rounds of CONCACAF qualifying.

Captain Aníbal Godoy (Sporting CP) leads a squad including 2023 Gold Cup Best Player Adalberto “Coco” Carrasquilla, Marseille fullback Amir Murillo, Ismael Díaz and Cecilio Waterman. Panama has reached three CONCACAF Gold Cup finals (2005, 2013, 2023) and were runners-up at the 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League — credentials that mark them as a serious second-tier CONCACAF side, even if direct comparisons with England and Croatia tilt heavily the other way.

The team plays at the Estadio Rommel Fernández in Panama City. Roman Torres’s 88th-minute goal vs Costa Rica on 10 October 2017 — the strike that sealed Panama’s 2018 berth — produced a national holiday declared by then-President Juan Carlos Varela, and is still routinely cited as the most significant single moment in Panamanian sporting history.

Group L Viewing Guide: AEST Times

Matchday	Date (AEST)	Kickoff	Fixture	Venue
MD1	Thu 18 Jun	6:00am	England vs Croatia	AT&T Stadium, Dallas
MD1	Thu 18 Jun	9:00am	Ghana vs Panama	BMO Field, Toronto
MD2	Wed 24 Jun	7:00am	England vs Ghana	Gillette Stadium, Boston
MD2	Wed 24 Jun	10:00am	Panama vs Croatia	BMO Field, Toronto
MD3	Sun 28 Jun	8:00am	Panama vs England	MetLife Stadium, New York/New Jersey
MD3	Sun 28 Jun	8:00am	Croatia vs Ghana	Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

The matchday-one double — England vs Croatia at 6:00am AEST followed by Ghana vs Panama at 9:00am — turns Thursday 18 June into a natural Aussie morning football slot. Matchday three’s simultaneous 8:00am AEST kickoffs (Sun 28 Jun) is the group’s classic group-stage finale set-up: both fixtures running in parallel for a clean qualification picture by mid-morning.

Money Match: England vs Croatia — A 2018 Sequel

The opening fixture carries genuine narrative weight. Croatia beat England 2–1 after extra time in the 2018 World Cup semi-final at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow — Mario Mandžukić’s 109th-minute goal sending Croatia to their first World Cup final and ending Gareth Southgate’s first major tournament run. Eight years later, with Tuchel replacing Southgate and Modrić in his final cycle, both sides arrive with the chance to revisit that result.

England’s qualifying form (5–0 over Serbia, 5–0 over Latvia) and Tuchel’s pedigree make the Three Lions clear tournament favourites in their group. Croatia counter with deeper World Cup experience — three consecutive deep tournament runs since 2018 — and a midfield that has been the spine of every major Croatian campaign since the country’s debut. For Aussie punters, the WC 2026 odds page covers the group winner and outright markets; the WC 2026 schedule has every match in AEST.

The Socceroos’ path sits in Group D, but Group L’s matchday one is one of the cleanest mornings on the schedule for Australian viewers — both kickoffs land squarely in the breakfast window. Set the alarm.