England and Ghana will battle for supremacy in Group L of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as they meet at the Boston Stadium on the evening of Tuesday, 23 June. Kick-off is at 10pm CAT.
England underlined their status as one of the tournament favourites when they defeated Croatia (third-place finishers in 2022) 4-2 at Dallas Stadium last Wednesday evening. Harry Kane scored twice in the first half to put the Three Lions 1-0 and 2-1 up, but Croatia twice levelled to see the game locked at 2-2 at the interval.
Yet in the second half, England’s power and depth (with the likes of Morgan Rogers and Bukayo Saka coming off the bench) saw them surge to victory on the back of strikes from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford (another substitute).
It was by no means a perfect performance from Thomas Tuchel’s team, but rarely have the Three Lions made such an emphatic statement of intent early in a major tournament. The German tactician has a couple of issues to remedy, with many pundits urging for Marc Guehi and Rashford to come into the starting line-up, though it would be no surprise if he stuck to the same XI.
Ghana got their World Cup campaign off to a winning start, as they defeated Panama 1-0 in Toronto on Thursday morning. A tepid and frustrating match in which few chances were created at either end was ultimately decided deep in injury time when Brandon Thomas-Asante teed up Caleb Yirenkyi to poke home a winner.
Black Stars coach Carlos Queiroz would have been delighted with the result, but less enamoured with the performance. Facing a team of England’s quality will no doubt inspire the West Africans to lift their game, but adding someone like Thomas-Asante to the line-up could be just the injection of energy and ambition that they need.