Harry Kane scored twice to equal the English record for World Cup goals, Jude Bellingham added another two minutes into the second half and England beat Croatia 4-2 on Wednesday.
Martin Baturina and Petar Musa answered each of Kane’s first-half goals in a rematch of the 2018 semifinal game won by Croatia. Musa’s goal came on the final play before the whistle ending the first half.
The even score didn’t last long once play resumed.
Bellingham took a long pass and stayed clear of the defender the rest of the way, sending a shot past Dominik Livakovic and in off the far post. Marcus Rashford padded the lead in the 85th minute.
Kane, who won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia by scoring six times, is up to 10 World Cup goals, tying Gary Lineker’s mark from the 1986 and 1990 tournaments.
The 32-year-old striker’s first goal came on his second chance on a penalty kick after Livakovic’s save on the first try was nullified by a video review that showed both his feet off the goal line as Kane was striking the ball.
“I thought it was a game of two halves,” Kane said. “I thought in the first half, we were okay…really disappointed to concede the way we did. The way we came out in the second half, we went full gas and they couldn’t live with it and that’s the level we need to set for every game.”
Kane went the same way toward the right post with the second attempt, while Livakovic lunged the other direction, to his right.
The penalty was called when Luka Modric, the 40-year-old midfielder who extended his Croatian record by appearing in his fifth World Cup, kicked Noni Madueke in the thigh.
Kane matched Lineker’s mark when the Bayern Munich striker easily beat Livakovic with a powerful header off a corner kick from Declan Rice. Kane has 81 international goals.
Bellingham almost immediately had another great scoring chance soon after his seventh international goal. Livakovic made that save and about a half-dozen more in a matter of minutes during a frenetic English attack.
Musa plays for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas, which has its home games about 40 miles from AT&T Stadium.
The retractable roof venue that is home to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys is giving World Cup fans an air-conditioned reprieve from the muggy Texas heat, this time for white-clad English fans and Croatian supporters who were mostly wearing their country’s familiar red-and-white checkered uniforms, not the blue kits the players had on.
Musa tracked a header from Ivan Perisic and put a one-timer past Jordan Pickford, who was also beaten in the 36th minute by Baturina. That shot into the left corner ticked off Pickford’s hand.
England next plays Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in Group L on Tuesday, the same day Croatia plays Panama in Toronto.
Reporting by the Associated Press.
