![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_FIFA-World-Cup-2026-Official-Draw-Red-Carpet-Arrivals.jpg\")
Thomas Tuchel says England can feel confident heading into next year’s World Cup(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\nEngland will face Croatia, Ghana and Panama at next year’s World Cup in Mexico, USA and Canada after the draw for the group stages was made in Washington with Thomas Tuchel in attendanceThomas Tuchel says England can feel confident heading into next year’s World Cup(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Thomas Tuchel insists the whole nation should get excited after England\u2019s World Cup draw.<\/p>\n
Tuchel was paired with Croatia, Ghana and Panama in their group – and could face a hard path top glory with co-hosts Mexico in Mexico City in the last 16 and a potential meeting with Brazil in the quarter finals.<\/p>\n
But bullish Tuchel says England should not fear anyone – even playing a team from \u201canother galaxy\u201d as he says they must focus on winning Group L as they kick off against Croatia on June 17.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: World Cup draw viewers left furious minutes into BBC coverage<\/a>READ MORE: England’s World Cup opponents and path to final as Three Lions learn fate<\/a><\/p>\n England boss Tuchel said: “It’s most important that we arrive with hunger. We arrive with hunger and with excitement and arrive as a team. We don’t worry. We don’t worry about our opponents.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it makes no sense, we will not get carried away, we will not point out a pathway or whatever, we will just make sure we play well and do good in the group.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuchel revealed that he has already had a text message from Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic who he managed at Chelsea<\/a>. \u201cThey’re proud, they’re full of talent. I’m pretty sure I already have a message from Mateo Kovacic on my phone. We know them, they know us, it’s a big opening match, it could easily be a quarter-final or even later in the tournament but it is what it is,\u201d said Tuchel.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve always said don’t wish for things, we don’t want to avoid anything at all costs, so now we know and now to be prepared.\u201d That also counted for England\u2019s path later in the tournament and a potential tie against Mexico.<\/p>\n Tuchel added: \u201cSomeone said, ‘whoever wins the medal in New Jersey, they will absolutely deserve it at the toughest tournament.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like a pretty tough tournament. But I will be excited to play in Mexico City, because I remember the World Cup there, and then I watched it as a teenager, and it was just like watching something from Mars or from another galaxy.<\/p>\n \u201cBut to be in there and then play a knockout game against Mexico? Anything can happen. We cannot get carried away now talking about Mexico or Brazil. We don’t know if we will meet them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don’t meet them for sure if we don’t perform in the group so we need to make sure that we are there and who else joins us, we cannot influence everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: World Cup 2026 draw in FULL as England and Scotland discover opponents<\/a>READ MORE: Gianni Infantino snubs Kevin Hart as awkward World Cup draw moment spotted<\/a><\/p>\n England kick off their World Cup campaign against Croatia on June 17 in either Toronto or Dallas. The stadium in Dallas is home to the Dallas Cowboys and does have a roof.<\/p>\n They will play The second game is against Ghana in either Toronto or Boston on June 23 then they face Panama on June 27 in Philadelphia or New Jersey.<\/p>\n It will be scorching temperatures on the East Coast and even if they win their Group then it could get even hotter in the knock-out stages.<\/p>\n England will discover their venues and kick-off times on Saturday as FIFA are staging another event to confirm the whole World Cup schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England will face Croatia, Ghana and Panama at next year’s World Cup in Mexico, USA and Canada after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,12632,1512,4884,6573,16,15,191191],"class_list":{"0":"post-614717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-england-football-team","11":"tag-fifa","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-thomas-tuchel","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-world-cup-draw"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115669403632174835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"England's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_FBL-WC-2026-DRAW.jpg\")
Tuchel was in attendance for the draw in Washington(Image: AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n