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FWC: SUI vs BIH live on SN ExtraEngland open World Cup campaign with wild win in Texas
Press Association •  June 18th, 2026 10:37 am
A brace from captain Harry Kane has helped England get their World Cup campaign underway with a win | Photo: AP
Harry Kane has equalled Gary Lineker's record of 10 World Cup goals for England after his first-half double in the 4-2 win opening win against Croatia.
The Bayern Munich striker came into the tournament on the back of a record-breaking season in Germany and did not take long to make a statement in North America in the Group L opener in Dallas on Wednesday (Thursday NZ Time).
He opened the scoring with a retaken penalty in the 12th minute when his original effort had been saved by Dominik Livakovic after the Croatia goalkeeper had come off his line.
After Croatia then equalised through Martin Baturina, Kane doubled his tally when he powered a header into the bottom corner from Declan Rice's corner.
Skipper Harry Kane put England up for a second time in Arlington with a thunderous header | Photo: AP
After Croatia drew level for a second time through Petar Musa on the stroke of halftime, second-half goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford sealed victory.
Kane won the 2018 Golden Boot in Russia when he scored six goals during England's run to the semi-finals, including a hat-trick against Panama.
He then bagged another two during the Qatar edition, but missed a penalty against France in the quarter-final defeat.
Lineker scored his 10 goals in two tournaments, winning the 1986 Golden Boot with six in Mexico before adding four at Italia '90.
Marcus Rashford celebrates with unused substitute Jordan Henderson after sealing all three points | Photo: AP
But with Kane on the board so early, he will be hoping to become the first player to win two Golden Boots and matched rivals Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, who both scored braces in their opening matches.
He will be a good bet to go past Lineker and break another record, having had opportunities to score a hat-trick in the second half.
The Texas encounter was one of the games of the group stage, with 70,389 watching Thomas Tuchel mastermind a first win against a team in FIFA's top 20.
Sport Nation is an official radio broadcaster of FIFA World Cup 2026 this June/July - download the app today on Google Play and the App Store.
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