Kane joins Lineker at the summit as Tuchel's England outlast Croatia in World Cup opener

Thomas Tuchel had spent the run-up to this World Cup telling anyone within earshot that tournament football would be a different animal. On the evening of 17 June 2026, his England side made his case for him, surviving two Croatian equalisers to win 4-2 in a breathless opening match that ended with the manager conducting a half-time inquest as much as a post-mortem. The result, secured by a Harry Kane brace and a second-half surge Tuchel himself described as the team's best level, gave England a foothold in the group and gave Kane a record he has chased for the better part of a decade.

The match carried a piece of English football history. Kane's two goals took him to ten World Cup goals for England, the mark Gary Lineker set across his international career. Lineker's verdict, delivered afterwards, was unambiguous: Kane is, in his view, "the greatest English striker we've ever had." The line, more than the scoreline, may be the line that travels furthest from a night that supplied plenty of candidates.

A penalty, a reprieve, and a number

The match's hinge moment came early. Kane won a spot kick and saw his first effort saved by Dominik Livakovic, only for the effort to be re-awarded after the goalkeeper was adjudged to have come off his line. Kane converted the retake to put England 1-0 up. The story of the night, however, was not the technicality of the retake but its consequences: from that point, Kane was matching Lineker's ten, and the press box was already counting. By full time, he had his brace and a place in a category that, in the English game, is essentially one-man deep.

The second goal, arriving in the second half, was the one that broke the contest open after Croatia had drawn level for a second time. From there, England ran, and the Croatian resistance thinned visibly.

Tuchel's half-time reckoning

Tuchel did not pretend the first 45 minutes had gone to plan. Speaking after the match, he confirmed that his players had been on the receiving end of a half-time reproach — the kind of intervention that, in the friendlies leading into the tournament, had been conspicuously absent from the public version of this England. The first half had the texture of a side still feeling its way into a tournament: two Croatian equalisers, a lead surrendered twice, a defence occasionally caught between pressing and holding its shape.

The second half was a different proposition. Kane said afterwards that the team had reached its "best level" after the break, and the statistics supported him. England were more direct, more willing to commit bodies into the Croatian half, and — crucially — more clinical. Whether that improvement was the product of Tuchel's words in the dressing room or simply the natural rhythm of a tournament game, the manager will take it. The point of the half-time speech was not its content but its effect, and the effect was visible.

Lineker's verdict, and what it carries

Lineker's praise matters in a way that goes beyond the personal. He is the only English striker with whom Kane is now genuinely comparable on the World Cup stage, and the comparison is one the public has been quietly drawing for some time. Lineker's ten goals came across two tournaments; Kane's ten have arrived in a different era, against a different kind of defensive organisation, and at the head of an England side built, in part, around his strengths.

To call him the greatest English striker, then, is to make an argument that goes well beyond goals. It is a claim about consistency, about availability, about the capacity to be the reference point of a side rather than its supporting cast. Lineker, the most measured of his generation's voices, is plainly convinced. The wider judgment is one the tournament will help adjudicate.

The road ahead

The victory gives England the opening statement Tuchel demanded. The performance, particularly across the first 70 minutes, leaves him with a clear dossier of corrections to make. The manager's instinct — to play down the friendlies, to insist the stress of tournament football would sharpen his side — has been at least provisionally vindicated. The next fixtures will tell us whether the second-half version of this England is the template, or whether the first-half version reappears under the next dose of pressure.

For Kane, the arithmetic is now simple. Every goal takes him past Lineker; every goal extends a record that, given the number of strikers England have produced in the modern era, will stand for a long time. He has the chance, in the weeks ahead, to do what no English striker has done before: own the World Cup scoring record outright. The chance is there, and — on the evidence of 17 June — the legs, and the temperament, look up to it.

This article will be updated as the tournament progresses.