WORLD CUP GROUP L: The Ultra previews ENGLAND v CROATIA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
🏆 World Cup 2026 🏆
🏴 England v Croatia 🇭🇷
9pm Group L gets underway on Wednesday evening UK time and it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for! England face Croatia at AT&T Stadium in Texas on WORLD CUP 2026 Betdaq Betting Exchange! and there will be no shortage of talking points here as England start their World Cup campaign. The game that will define the mood of an entire nation before the Group stage has barely started! On paper, this is England’s toughest test, they should easily beat Ghana and Panama also in Group L, so this game will decide who finishes top. As I said in my Group L preview, the acid test for Thomas Tuchel (pictured below) is this World Cup. He inherited a side with exceptional talent, oversaw a flawless qualifying campaign, and now walks into the first real examination of what this England team is actually capable of.
As you would expect, England come into the game as the odds on favourites at 1.76 with Croatia 5.4 and the draw is 3.95 at the time of writing. We all know that Croatia are an aging side now, but anybody who has watched international football for the past decade knows that Croatia cannot be dismissed lightly! They seem to just turn up and do well at every major tournament; even when we’re all asking when are their legs going to go. England became the first European nation ever to qualify for a World Cup with a perfect record and not a goal conceded across the entire campaign; however their qualifying Group was very easy. They didn’t need to get out of first gear. We don’t yet know what this England team is capable of when the pressure comes on under Tuchel. The squad, for all the questions about who was left out etc, is genuinely packed with world class talent.
If Tuchel gets his tactical setup right and England come out of the blocks with intent, they are capable of blowing Croatia away. The question is whether they will. England were exceptionally cagey under Gareth Southgate – obviously that style usually works at big tournaments and international football in general; however they were often called boring. You could really see the UK media getting on their back again if they label their tactics boring here again, and they end up drawing 0-0 and 1-1 for example. Croatia will be a tough nut to crack too – 2018 World Cup Finalists and 2022 World Cup Semi-Finalists; and at every single tournament, somebody writes their obituary only for them to be proved wrong.
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I do feel this is the tournament where father time catches up though. Luka Modric is 40 years old now, this is a golden generation in its very final chapter, and the squad has less depth than the sides that reached those previous finals. They topped their qualifying Group easily, but much like England they had a very easy qualifying Group too. I’m keen to keep stakes low heading into this one as we see what England can bring under Tuchel. I have to say, the 1.76 is a tempting bet just on the balance of quality across the two squads. However, you’d have to be expecting Croatia to be very cagey and set up quite negatively here for a draw. When sides do that, England have had a history of struggling to break them down. The Tuchel era has not been tested at this level, and Croatia’s experience is obviously important here. I feel we’ll have a cagey game, and Under 2.5 goals looks the value play at 1.77. I feel that’s a much better bet at one tick bigger than the England win.
The Ultra Says:
Two points win Under 2.5 goals at 1.77 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/WCEnCr
