England produced one of the most impressive displays of attacking football we’ve seen so far at this summer’s World Cup.

The Three Lions were twice pegged back after taking the lead but pulled clear for a third time to secure all three points against Croatia.

Here are our Scout Notes from the game, featuring match stats from our World Cup Toolkit page.

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ENGLAND 4-2 CROATIA

• Goals: Kane 2 (1 pen), Bellingham, Rashford | Baturina, Musa
• Assists: Rice, Anderson, Saka | Sucic, Perisic
• Penalty won: Madueke
• Shot on target bonus: Kane
• Tackle bonus: Bellingham
• Top points scorers: Kane (13), Baturina (10), Bellingham (9), Rashford (9), Musa (9), Anderson (7), Perisic (7), Sucic (7)

TEAM STATS

PLAYER STATS

SCOUT NOTES

• The first half was entertaining enough, an end-to-end affair in which both sides’ defence looked ragged. Harry Kane ($10.5m) twice put England ahead, via a (retaken) penalty and a set-piece header, with Croatia restoring parity on each occasion. Both Croatia goals were well worked, with Martin Baturina ($6.5m) lashing in from the edge of the box and Petar Musa ($5.1m) finishing well from a clever Ivan Perisic ($5.4m) knock-down.
• Then, England turned on the afterburners. The Three Lions came out after the break like a team possessed, with nine of their 22 shots coming in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It was an onslaught, and an impressive one, with the frontmen pressing aggressively and pinning Croatia back. Nico O’Reilly ($4.7m) had two excellent head chances, the second of which saw Anthony Gordon ($7.0m) and Ezri Konsa ($4.8m) unable to stab the rebound in. Kane, Declan Rice ($7.0m) and Jude Bellingham ($8.3m) all tested the inspired Dominik Livakovic ($4.5m), but not before the excellent Bellingham had put England 3-2 up.
• Bukayo Saka ($9.5m), Marcus Rashford ($7.5m) and Morgan Rogers ($7.2m) all came off the bench to good effect, too, keeping the energy up in attack. The first two combined for England’s fourth goal, the latter creating an excellent chance for fellow substitute Djed Spence ($4.5m). Rashford for Gordon is perhaps the most plausible change for Round 2, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if Tuchel kept things unchanged. That includes Noni Madueke ($6.1m) ahead of Saka, whose fitness continues to be managed. Madueke was his usual mix of dangerous runs and inconsistent end product, but did do well to win England’s penalty.
• Rice, who took all eight of England’s corners and assisted Kane’s header, walked gingerly off with 18 minutes to go, with Reece James ($5.2m) moving into midfield. All seems fine with the Arsenal man, however:

“I saw some discomfort. So, I asked him and he pointed directly to his lower back, the upper part of his hamstring, where he felt discomfort, and I didn’t want to take any risks. So, if I took Declan off, which I never want to do, it was the time to protect him. And I think Reece James did very well replacing him in midfield. He had a fantastic game. So, that’s it. I hope it’s nothing more than that. Declan reassured me at the end: ‘It’s okay, it’s okay.’ And I know about the discomfort; we’ll take care of it. And it’s nothing major to worry about.” – Thomas Tuchel on Declan Rice

• Things were less convincing at the back, and you couldn’t help but feel that Marc Guehi ($5.1m) would have brought an air of calm that was missing at centre-half.
• England’s xG of 3.11 was impressively the third-highest of Round 1. Only Germany and Switzerland, who faced the comparative minnows of Curacao and Qatar (not a high-ranked nation like Croatia), could better that.
• That was likely both sides’ toughest tests out of the way, certainly based on Ghana v Panama that followed. We can expect Croatia to move from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1 now, with Perisic likely moving from wing-back to left wing.