Welcome to The Athletic’s 2026 World Cup tactical group guides, walking you through the key battles on the pitch, the players to look out for, and the fun facts to impress your friends ahead of the tournament.
In this article, we will break down Group L, containing England, Croatia, Ghana, and Panama. It is a group that, statistically speaking, is the second-strongest among the 12 competing this summer, based on the average FIFA rating of the four teams.
England will be the favourites to top the group, but none of the nations were accustomed to tasting competitive defeat in the build-up to this tournament.
Only Ghana suffered a single loss (vs Comoros) across their qualifying games, while the remaining three teams reached the World Cup undefeated in their respective confederation groups.
So, will England be more tactically astute under Thomas Tuchel? Can Croatia continue to punch above their weight? And will Ghana experience an international new manager bounce?
The games
Matchday one
- Wednesday, June 17: England vs Croatia (4pm ET, 1pm PT, 9pm BST) — AT&T Stadium, Dallas
- Wednesday, June 17: Ghana vs Panama (7pm ET, 4pm PT, 12am BST+1) — BMO Field, Toronto
Matchday two
- Tuesday, June 23: England vs Ghana (4pm ET, 1pm PT, 9pm BST) — Gillette Stadium, Boston
- Tuesday, June 23: Panama vs Croatia (7pm ET, 4pm PT, 12am BST+1) — BMO Field, Toronto
Matchday three
- Saturday, June 27: Panama vs England (5pm ET, 2pm PT, 10pm BST) — MetLife Stadium, New York/New Jersey
- Saturday, June 27: Croatia vs Ghana (5pm ET, 2pm PT, 10pm BST) — Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Key tactical approaches
England’s qualifying campaign was nigh-on perfect, with eight wins from eight, 22 goals scored, and none conceded as they strolled to top spot.
Tuchel has tried different systems, but a 4-2-3-1 is the set-up that England will almost certainly play this summer. A midfield pairing of Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson is likely to be first-choice, behind a No 10 with pacy wingers and the undroppable Harry Kane.
Individual quality often prevails, but Tuchel is hell-bent on building a coherent system — even if it meant disappointing some star talent.
“I just watched a documentary on the (American football team) New England Patriots and saw a quote there — ‘We don’t collect the most talented players, we build a team’,” Tuchel said in October. “I cannot agree more. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
In the same breath, there is one man that England cannot live without. Tuchel rang the changes in their March friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, but the attack was notably toothless without their injured captain. England have shown coherent attacking patterns in the absence of Kane in the past year, but the lack of a focal point is telling when facing stronger opposition.
England’s all-time top goalscorer carries a lot of the attacking burden. Kane scored eight of his country’s 20 goals during qualifying and has scored 34 per cent of their total goals in their last four major tournaments.
Kane’s role in the team also uncovers another tactical component of England’s game plan, which requires off-ball runners to offer unpredictability and dynamism in their attack.
England have the star power, but can Tuchel turn them into a team? (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Despite their progression to the Euro 2024 final, there were too many ball-to-feet profiles across England’s forward line, resulting in a stodgy campaign. Kane is known to drift into pockets of space in deeper areas, but this is only effective when he has bodies running beyond him to exploit the space he vacates.
Having Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham as dual No 10s — coupled with a right-footed Kieran Trippier playing left-back — meant that there was little threat in behind the opposition defensive line in their last tournament.
Under Tuchel, there has been a concerted effort to shift the opposition around with counter-movements, particularly from full-back. Whether through underlapping runs or drifting inside, different partnerships have shown similar patterns where the wide forward can receive the ball in space thanks to the off-ball movement of their same-side defender.
With Tuchel’s squad selection suggesting that he is prioritising athleticism, do not be surprised to see these sequences over the summer.
That movement will be particularly important when looking to move a battle-hardened Croatia around the pitch.
They might have had a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign — finishing third in a group containing Italy and Spain — but Croatia’s previous two World Cups have seen them reach a semi-final and a final.
A core reason is having one of the world’s most robust midfields for the past decade, with a combination of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Rakitic providing the central steel that could compete with any nation.
With the latter two now retired and Kovacic slowly returning after missing a lot of the season through injury, Modric continues to fly the flag in the heart of the pitch. His international minutes might have been managed, but the 40-year-old played a role in each of Croatia’s eight qualifying games along with fellow veterans Andrej Kramaric (34) and Ivan Perisic (36).
To balance the old and the new in midfield, Zlatko Dalic’s side have been more inclined to shift between a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-4-3 during their qualifying campaign, though the principles remain similar.
As well as 23-year-old Martin Baturina, Inter Milan midfielder Petar Sucic is the next young midfielder off the production line — with the 22-year-old able to drop into the back line or push forward when Croatia build up.
Here, against Montenegro, Sucic drops in to form a situational back three to allow Croatia’s full-backs to push higher as their forwards occupy the opposition defensive line.
Against the Faroe Islands, Croatia started with a back three, but the shape looked similar — wing-backs high and wide with bodies pushed forward. Incidentally, it is Sucic who is advanced in occupying the right half-space — rotating with Modric when stitching the attack together.
Croatia’s approach has hardly deviated from the previous major tournament. Controlling the tempo is what Dalic’s side do, with a 70 per cent average possession share during qualification — being behind only Spain, Portugal, Germany and England.
That experience means Croatia are rarely overawed with a style that will be suited in the searing heat expected this summer. Only Austria and Switzerland had an older average age than Croatia’s 29 years among European teams to qualify for the tournament.
Luka Modric, now into his 40s, is still performing superbly for his nation (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
Ghana, meanwhile, have confused as much as they have entertained recently.
While they did not qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, a strong World Cup qualifying campaign saw them top the group with games to spare — suggesting that they had got themselves back on track on the international stage.
However, a string of four losses on the bounce — all friendlies against Japan, South Korea, Austria and Germany — saw manager Otto Addo sacked 78 days before the start of the World Cup. Carlos Queiroz was the man brought in to replace Addo, with the 73-year-old bringing a wealth of experience at international level, having managed in four World Cups with Portugal and Iran.
Ghana are also able to switch between a back three and back four, but Queiroz’s main priority will be to tighten things up defensively to allow their pacy wingers to counter-attack at speed.
Antoine Semenyo will be a key part of Ghana’s plans for the 2026 World Cup (Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
Mohammed Kudus and Antoine Semenyo have carried that burden in wide areas, but a long-term hamstring injury kept Kudus out of Tottenham Hotspur’s relegation battle this calendar year. A glut of young talent is waiting behind them in the form of Kamaldeen Sulemana (24), Ernest Nuamah (22) and Abdul Fatawu (22), with each able to drop a shoulder and burst beyond their opponent.
There is a profligacy to Ghana’s attack at times. Breaking down stubborn defences is one issue, but there is an over-reliance on captain Jordan Ayew to provide the attacking numbers for the Black Stars, with the 34-year-old logging 14 goal involvements (seven goals and seven assists) during qualifying.
While Ghana have the bigger international pedigree in recent generations, they are ranked lower than Panama in FIFA’s world rankings. The Central Americans sit 33rd in the current table, having reached their all-time highest ranking of 29th in September 2025.
It has been a fruitful few years for Thomas Christiansen’s side, having reached the Gold Cup final in 2023 and CONCACAF Nations League final in 2025 — losing to Mexico on both occasions.
Panama got the better of the United States in the semi-final of the latter tournament, with a stoppage-time Cecilio Waterman goal clinching the 1-0 victory. It was the same story in the Copa America months earlier, as Panama advanced out of Group C with Uruguay at the expense of the USMNT after beating them 2-1 in Atlanta.
So much of their success has come since Christiansen arrived in 2020. This is not the same Panama that made their World Cup debut in 2018 — and who were beaten 6-1 by England in the group stage.
Stylistically, Panama’s set-up is simple yet effective — a 5-2-3 (or 5-4-1) out of possession, which allows the wing-backs to push forward in possession to create a 3-2-5.
Christiansen’s side are not swashbuckling in attack, with five CONCACAF teams outscoring them across all qualifying groups, but there is a robustness to their style that should not be underestimated by their World Cup opponents this summer.
Standout players
England boast some of the world’s best attacking stars in Bellingham, Kane, and Bukayo Saka.
Even by his own standards, Kane has been in white-hot form for club and country this season — scoring 61 goals for Bayern Munich across all competitions. A total tally of 36 Bundesliga goals is impressive enough, but that rate of 1.4 goals per 90 minutes puts Kane comfortably above any other striker in Europe’s top five leagues in 2025-26.
As shown below, his proficiency has reached new heights since his move to Bayern Munich — with the freedom to drift across the pitch and exploit gaps at will. England’s attacking success will depend on the form of their 32-year-old captain.
Hoffenheim’s Kramaric is likely to be Croatia’s key attacking player, but the star of the show will continue to be Ballon d’Or winner Modric — who will be playing in his fifth World Cup tournament when he takes to the field in Dallas on June 17.
Modric is showing no signs of stopping, having played 91 per cent of AC Milan’s available minutes this season — a higher share than any of his league campaigns at Real Madrid.
He might be passing the international baton over to Sucic in midfield, but the sheer volume of caps that Modric has is astonishing. When including Perisic, Kramaric and Kovacic in the all-time appearance makers, it highlights the glut of experience that Croatia will arrive with this summer.
For Ghana, it is tricky to look beyond Semenyo, who is coming off the best club season of his career.
A return of 10 goals, three assists, and plenty of game-deciding performances were enough for Manchester City to pluck Semenyo from Bournemouth in the January transfer window, with the 26-year-old picking up where he left off at his new club, including the winning goal in the FA Cup final.
A further seven league goals and an assist meant Semenyo offered a goal involvement in every other game for his new club since January. While he might start in wide positions, Semenyo’s goal map below shows how clinical he can be to get into those central areas before slotting home.
Ghana will need every bit of that form on the big stage this summer.
Panama are defined more by their collective than a single individual, but if you are going to keep an eye out for anyone, then captain Anibal Godoy is the glue that holds the team together.
With 159 international caps to his name — Panama’s highest of all time — the 36-year-old has the experience to be the coach on the pitch as Panama navigate a tricky group.
If it is a bit of stardust you are looking for, then Adalberto Carrasquilla is the man most likely to provide it. The former Houston Dynamo midfielder is now a mainstay for Pumas UNAM in Mexico, and is the creative fulcrum for club and country.
As shown below, Carrasquilla can play anywhere across midfield, with his 37 open-play chances created being the highest of any player for Pumas this season. A similar return would be welcomed by Panama as the 27-year-old looks to pull the attacking strings.
Things to look out for
England will look forward to facing Panama on matchday three, given the success they had when the pair last faced off competitively. A 6-1 victory in the 2018 World Cup was the biggest margin of victory England have ever registered in the tournament.
This year’s encounter is likely to be a little more competitive, but Tuchel’s side will be hoping for a similar scoreline in New Jersey.
With a glut of talent at his disposal, Tuchel faces a similar dilemma that has plagued England managers in previous generations — how do you get all of your best players on to the pitch in a coherent system?
Tuchel has prioritised team fluency rather than simply picking the best individuals, but questions still lie in the No 10 position. Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Morgan Gibbs-White were notable absentees from the squad, but Bellingham, Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze are all vying to be the starting player behind Kane.
On paper, Bellingham is the one holding the shirt, but fitness and form issues saw the 22-year-old play fewer minutes than expected during qualifying. Tuchel’s preference for Rogers might mean that a decision on the starting berth could go down to the wire.
For Ghana, keep an eye out for their set pieces.
Despite some bluntness in open play, the arrival of Gregory De Grauwe as the Black Stars’ set-piece coach and video analyst has spiced things up from dead-ball situations.
Deliveries are often targeted to the back post, but a creative routine can be seen against Germany — where a crowd of Ghana players disperse to provide Ayew with a clear shot at goal from a cutback corner.
A similar example can be seen against the Central African Republic during qualifying, where Kudus peels off the back of his team-mates to receive a drilled pass. The sequence breaks down, but there is creativity from Ghana when setting up for a set piece.
Beyond being his nation’s most coveted player, Modric will be the oldest player to represent Croatia in a major tournament. Croatia’s captain is an icon of 21st-century football, and will be one of few outfield players to ever play in a World Cup in his 40s.
He might be some way off Cameroonian record-holder Roger Milla (42 years, one month and nine days) as the oldest outfielder during the 1994 tournament, but Modric is likely to join Cristiano Ronaldo (41) and Edin Dzeko (40) as a rare breed of non-goalkeepers representing their country in their fifth decade.
