England survive a wild one with Croatia as Ronaldo's Portugal stall

England promised a serious campaign and then spent an afternoon in Texas nearly giving it away. Twice Croatia drew level, twice England pulled clear, and a 4-2 win that flattered nobody’s defending got them moving. A day after Messi’s hat-trick, Cristiano Ronaldo had the opposite kind of night.

England win the messy one

Harry Kane scored twice, a 12th-minute penalty and a header before the break, and still England could not shake Croatia off. Martin Baturina and Petar Musa both levelled, the second deep in first-half stoppage time. Jude Bellingham settled it after the restart with a goal he made himself, and Marcus Rashford came off the bench to make it 4-2 in Arlington. England have now won their opening match at three straight World Cups. The back four will still get a talking-to.

Ronaldo runs into a wall

A day after Messi tore up the record books, Ronaldo managed rather less. Portugal led inside six minutes through João Neves, let DR Congo level through Yoane Wissa on the stroke of half-time, and never found the second in a 1-1 draw in Houston. At 41 Ronaldo became the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup match, and stretched his goalless run at major tournaments to ten games. DR Congo have their first World Cup point ever, and will not care one bit how it looked.

Ghana leave it late

Group L’s other game looked like a goalless draw right until it wasn’t. Ghana and Panama slogged through the Toronto rain to the 95th minute, when Caleb Yirenkyi finished off a counterattack to win it 1-0. Cruel on Panama, who had done the hard part right up until they didn’t.

Group L: England and Ghana open with wins; Croatia and Panama with nothing.

See how Group L is shaping up now on the live table.

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