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Thomas Tuchel makes history as England beat Croatia in first World Cup game
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- Thomas Tuchel makes history as England beat Croatia in first World Cup game
Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images
Thomas Tuchel has made history as England kicked off their World Cup campaign with a win against Croatia .
It was a topsy-turvy game that saw Harry Kane score from the penalty spot at the second attempt before Martin Baturina equalised.
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Kane restored the Three Lions' lead from Declan Rice's corner before a well-worked move from Croatia was finished off by Petar Musa . England came out of the blocks in the second half though and Jude Bellingham finished a 23-pass move to make it 3-2. Marcus Rashford then made sure of the win just before full time to earn Tuchel's side an important win and create history.
Thomas Tuchel becomes first foreign England manager to win first tournament game
England are one of the favourites to win the World Cup and the pressure was on Tuchel to deliver.
By beating Croatia, he became the first foreign manager to win his first game as England boss at a major tournament.
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Sven-Goran Eriksson's first major tournament saw them lose 2-1 to France at the 2002 World Cup while Fabio Capello began the 2010 World Cup with a 1-1 draw against this year's co-hosts, the USA.
Photo by Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
England start off strongly
A 4-2 win may sound like it was a close call but in reality, aside from two chances, Croatia rarely threatened.
There were times when the Three Lions looked slack but that isn't a reason to worry. All of the other favourites have shown signs of vulnerability but came out on top.
Croatia were always going to be the hardest test of the group stages and they have come through that.
Their second half performance in particular saw the team purring at some stages and, at the end of the day, winning remains the most important thing.
