England 2026 World Cup fixtures: UK kick-off times, group, venues and potential knockout opponents

With the draw for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States now completed, England now know their first three opponents and have a clearer idea of what their path towards the greatest prize in global football will look like come the summer.

Below, we’ve collected all the details of England’s group stage matches, their opponents, the kick-off times and venues ahead of the tournament – and looked ahead to their path to the final in New York in July.

When and where are England’s group stage games at the 2026 World Cup?

England were drawn into Group L – the twelfth and final group of the draw – against Croatia, Panama and Ghana, and all three of their group stage matches will take place in the United States.

The good news for English viewers who can’t travel to the tournament is that all three of their kick-off times are relatively unproblematic for a British audience, with the games starting at either 21:00 or 22:00 BST. Not ideal for younger viewers, perhaps, but other matches will take place at far less helpful times. Spare a thought for Scotland fans, who will have to be up at 02:00 to watch their side play Haiti. England’s three confirmed fixtures for the World Cup are as follows:

• Wednesday 17 June, 21:00 BST: England v Croatia, AT&T Stadium Stadium, Arlington TX
• Tuesday 23 June, 21:00: England v Ghana, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA
• Saturday 27 June, 22:00: Panama v England, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford NJ

All three of the venues England will play in are primarily used by NFL teams – by the Dallas Cowboys, the New England Patriots and jointly by the New York Giants & Jets respectively – and the relative proximity of England’s second and third group games will also make life easier for fans who plan to travel to the States to take in more than one match. The MetLife Stadium in New Jersey is also the venue for the final on 19 July.

Who will England play against in the World Cup?

England have history with all three of their group stage opponents - Croatia, Panama and Ghana – and may feel as though they have one of the tougher group stage draws in the tournament.

Croatia: England have played Croatia 11 times since they were established as an independent nation, winning six, drawing two and losing three, but the defeats were scarring – not only did they lose to Croatia in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup under Gareth Southgate, but they were also beaten twice by them while trying and failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championship, including the 3-2 defeat at a sodden Wembley which cost Steve McClaren, infamously sheltering beneath his umbrella, his job as England manager.

Croatia were the highest-ranked team in the 2026 World Cup draw which England could have been drawn against, and like England came through their qualifying group with ease, dropping just two points in a draw with Czechia while easing past Montenegro, Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands.

Still captained by legendary playmaker Luka Modrić, who turned 40 in September, Croatia are likely to take an extremely experienced squad to North America and have a stingy defence led by Manchester City’s Joško Gvardiol, their only current Premier League player. They aren’t quite as strong as they were in 2018 when they finished as runners-up, but they are still likely to provide Thomas Tuchel with some stiff opposition.

Panama: Likely England’s weakest group stage opponents, England have faced Panama just once in their history – an easy 6-1 victory in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, a game in which the Three Lions’ ‘love train’ set piece tactic made light work of their Central American opposition.

With the three host nations qualifying automatically, Panama made it out of an easier-than-normal CONCACAF qualification group, earning three wins and three draws against Suriname, Guatemala and El Salvador. Few members of their squad play at the top level in Europe, with Marseille full-back Amir Murillo probably their star player. England will be expected to ease past Panama in their final group game.

Ghana: Perhaps surprisingly, England have only ever played Ghana once before – a 1-1 friendly draw back in 2011 – and it’s hard to gauge how much of a challenge they will present for the Three Lions next summer.

On the one hand, they qualified for the World Cup with relative ease, losing just one of their 10 games in a group which also contained Mali, but that success came hot on the heels of a disastrous AFCON qualifying campaign which saw them miss out on a place at the 2025 tournament in Morocco.

They can boast a few star players such as Tottenham Hotspur’s Mohammed Kudus and Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo, but the rest of their current squad is something of a mixed back, with players featuring for sides as varied as Atalanta, Coventry City and Irish outfit St. Patrick’s Athletic. The great unknown in England’s group stage.

Who will England face if they make it out of the group?

The bracket for the knockout phase of the tournament, which has been expanded to include a new Round of 32, has already been determined, giving England an idea of where and who they might play should they qualify. The top two teams from each group will advance to the Round of 32, along with the eight best-performing third-placed teams.

As one of the four highest-ranked sides in the draw, England will be seeded if they become the winners of Group L, which would mean that they would not be able to face the other top four teams (France, Argentina and Spain) until at least the semi-finals.

Should England win Group L, then they will face a third-placed team from Groups E, H, I, J or K in Atalanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday 1 July at 17:00 BST.

Come second in their group, and the Three Lions would face the runners-up from Group K (which contains Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan and a play-off winner from Jamaica, New Caledonia or DR Congo) in Toronto at 00:00 BST on Thursday 2 July. Qualify in third place as one of the best runners-up, and England would face the winners from the same group in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium on Friday 3 July at 02:30 BST.