FIFA has officially announced the schedule and host cities for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Croatian national football team will play in group L together with England, Panama and Ghana. The Vatreni will play their first match against England June 17 in Dallas, at 3:00 p.m local time, which is 22:00 Croatian time. They are playing the second game June 23 against Panama in Toronto at 19:00 local time, i.e. in Croatia on June 24 at 1 a.m. The last trial in the group will be June 27 against Ghana in Philadelphia, at 17:00 by local, that is 23:00 Croatian time.
As a reminder, the national teams are divided into 12 groups with four teams each, and this will be the first World Cup in history with as many as 48 national teams. The duel between England and Croatia in the first round of group L will be the only duel between two national teams from the TOP 10 in that phase of the competition.
Dalić satisfied with the schedule
Selectman Zlatko Dalić commented on the published timesheets:
We can be satisfied, now we know three cities where we will play, and what is very nice is that we will play one game in Toronto where the stadium will surely be full of our fans. Against England in Dallas we will be playing in a big stadium – that is the only game in the first round in which it will be played meet two TOP 10 national teams. So again we have that exclusive to play such a big game.
We are playing the third game in Philadelphia, and the hourly rate suits us because of our people who will watch the games in Croatia. After this draw we can be satisfied maybe we could have skipped Ghana but we will do our best and do the best we can.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: HNS)
