Kane impressed by Three Lions' second-half show

England captain Harry Kane felt the Three Lions were worthy winners in their FIFA World Cup 2026 opener against Croatia.

The Bayern Munich striker scored twice to help fire the Three Lions to a 4-2 victory in Dallas, with his first coming from the penalty spot before he added his second with a firm header from a Declan Rice corner to go level with Gary Lineker as England's top World Cup goalscorer with 12 goals.

But with Croatia twice finding an equaliser to send the teams in level at the break, it took a strong second-half performance from Thomas Tuchel’s men with further goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford sealing the three points.

“It was a game of two halves,” said Kane.

“I thought the first half, we were okay, but I was really disappointed to concede in the way we did and the way we dropped off.

“Credit to the manager, he gave us a speech at half time and said: ‘Look, if we lose, we lose, but we lose in our way.’

“I think you saw that in the second half. We came out full of gas and they couldn't live with it. That's the level we have to set in every game.

“Without the ball, we became a little more aggressive. It was difficult because they've got great players. When Luka [Modric] was dropping in, we were trying to work out who to pick up.

“But in the second half, we thought; ‘Let's just go.’

“If we saw a man in front of us, we go. The intensity we went at, that is probably our biggest strength, and we're going to have to use that more this tournament.

“Even the way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger. We controlled possession well and then scored on the counter-attack, which you can do in these types of games.

“We had a spell in the first 20 minutes when we could have scored three or four. But in the end, it's three points on the board and a great result.”

England will now return to their base camp in Kansas City, where they will begin their preparations for their second group game against Ghana in Boston on Tuesday 23 June (9pm BST).