Croatia 2026 Schedule & Game Calendar
View or download the complete 2026 Croatia World Cup season schedule: all games, scores, venues, and broadcast info.
Croatia 2026 Schedule & Results
Buy Croatia Tickets (opens Ticketmaster in a new tab)The Croatia play in the FIFA-WORLD-CUP (FIFA World Cup). Their 2026 schedule includes 3 games. They have 1 home games and 2 away games this season.
Download the complete Croatia 2026 schedule as an ICS calendar file, CSV spreadsheet, or printable PDF using the Download button on the schedule above. Pick the full season, a single month, or a head-to-head matchup.
Croatia in Group L: the road through the 2026 World Cup
Croatia begin the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Group L, a four-team pool that puts them with England, Panama, and Ghana. Two of those rivals come from UEFA, one from CONCACAF, and one from CAF, so the group mixes familiar European opposition with sides Croatia rarely meet. The three matchdays stretch from June 17 to June 27, and they hop between three host cities in two countries. Croatia open against England at Dallas Stadium on June 17, a 4:00 PM ET kickoff and the first read on where this team stands. After that they travel north to Toronto to play Panama on June 23 at 7:00 PM ET, the only one of their three games staged in Canada. The group closes on June 27 against Ghana in Philadelphia at 5:00 PM ET, with Croatia listed as the home side. That last fixture could decide everything, because the 48-team format only sends the top two from each group straight through, with the eight best third-placed teams filling out a 32-team knockout round. Croatia have never won the World Cup, so there is no record to defend, only a group to get out of. The draw is awkward rather than brutal. England are the seeded heavyweight, Ghana bring CAF pace as the closing opponent, and Panama are the CONCACAF side in between, a team Croatia rarely cross. Two away games and one at home, two countries, three time-zone-friendly kickoffs, and a campaign that builds toward the final round on June 27.
Croatia's three Group L matchdays, date by date
Croatia play three group games inside an 11-day window, and the kickoff times sit in a friendly band for North American viewers. It starts with England on Wednesday, June 17 at Dallas Stadium, a 4:00 PM ET kickoff that doubles as the heavyweight tie of the group. Croatia are the away side in that one. Next comes Panama on Tuesday, June 23 at Toronto Stadium, a 7:00 PM ET start and Croatia's only trip across the border into Canada, where they are again listed away. The group wraps on Saturday, June 27 against Ghana at Philadelphia Stadium, a 5:00 PM ET kickoff with Croatia as the home team. Three cities, three stadiums, and a tidy spread of dates to block out. The rhythm is uneven on purpose: a midweek opener, then a six-day gap before the Panama match, then four days before the Ghana finale, so Croatia get more recovery early and a quicker turnaround at the business end. Two of the three are away assignments, with only the Philadelphia closer giving Croatia home billing. Each fixture on the page below shows the venue, the host city, and the kickoff in US Eastern, and the times update on their own if the schedule shifts before or during the group stage.
England, Panama, and Ghana: the Group L field
Group L hands Croatia a genuine cross-section of the world game. England, fellow UEFA members, are the opening opponent in Dallas and the one nation in this group with a World Cup title already on the board. Panama, from the CONCACAF region, come next in Toronto, a side Croatia have little shared history with and a fixture that carries its own pressure in a tight pool. Ghana, the CAF representative, close the group in Philadelphia, and as the away team in that match they will arrive knowing exactly what a result does for their own hopes. For Croatia, none of the three is a write-off and none is a certainty. The expanded 48-team field has widened the margins, and with the top two plus the best third-placed teams advancing, every point Croatia take against England, Panama, or Ghana feeds directly into where they finish and which knockout slot they inherit. The confederation spread matters in practice as well as on paper. England arrive as a side Croatia know from the European circuit, Panama bring a CONCACAF style Croatia see far less of, and Ghana add CAF pace and physicality to the mix. Three opponents, three different problems to solve, and only one of them, the Ghana finale, played with Croatia as the home team.
What a knockout run would look like for Croatia
Clearing Group L is step one. The 2026 World Cup runs to 104 matches and inserts a Round of 32 ahead of the older Round of 16, so the knockout ladder is one rung longer than at any previous tournament. Should Croatia top the group, they slot into a bracket seeded for group winners. Finish second, or sneak in as one of the eight best third-placed teams across the 12 groups, and the route can look harder. From the Round of 32 the path runs to the Round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the final on July 19, with a third-place match for the losing semifinalists. Croatia's first knockout opponent stays unknown until every group plays its closing round, because the bracket only locks once all 12 final group positions are settled. The moment that opponent is confirmed, the date, venue, and kickoff appear here and in any calendar you have synced. One detail is worth keeping in mind for planning: a deep run would carry Croatia well beyond June 27 and across more host cities, since the knockout matches are spread across the same USA, Canada, and Mexico venues that staged the group stage. The schedule on this page tracks all of it, so a Round of 32 tie slots in the same way a group game does, with its own date, city, and kickoff in US Eastern.
Croatia’s 2026 World Cup begins in Group L
Croatia walk into the 2026 World Cup without a title to their name and without the burden that comes with one. What they carry instead is a draw that asks hard questions early. The first 48-team World Cup placed Croatia in Group L alongside England, Panama, and Ghana, and the three matches run from June 17 to June 27 across Dallas, Toronto, and Philadelphia.
The group opens with the toughest test. Croatia face England at Dallas Stadium on June 17, a 4:00 PM ET kickoff that pits two UEFA sides against each other on day one. From Texas the schedule sends Croatia north to Canada, where Panama wait in Toronto on June 23 at 7:00 PM ET. The finale brings Ghana to Philadelphia on June 27 at 5:00 PM ET, and Croatia are the home side for that closing fixture.
The math is plain even if the football is not. Two finishers per group go through on their own, and the eight best of the third-placed teams take the last Round of 32 places. So Croatia can afford a slip, but not many. A result against England would steady the whole campaign. A second against Panama would tilt the group their way. And if it all comes down to Ghana on the final matchday, Croatia will know precisely what they need before kickoff.
There is a shape to the draw worth reading early. Group L stacks a fellow UEFA side, a CONCACAF side, and a CAF side against Croatia, so the styles shift game to game rather than blurring into one. The two European teams, Croatia and England, meet first, which front-loads the marquee fixture and means Croatia’s group could be half-decided inside ninety minutes on June 17. The trips themselves are short by World Cup standards. Dallas and Philadelphia sit in the United States, Toronto across the border in Canada, and all three kick off inside the same Eastern window, so there is no body clock to fight from one matchday to the next.
Reading the three Group L fixtures one by one
The opener is the one circled in red. Croatia meet England at Dallas Stadium on Wednesday, June 17 at 4:00 PM ET, two European heavyweights drawn into the same group and meeting before either has found its feet in the tournament. As the away side, Croatia have nothing to lose and a clear incentive to take something from a fixture that often sets the tone for a group. A point here keeps every option open. A win flips the entire complexion of Group L.
Six days later the setting changes completely. Croatia cross into Canada to play Panama at Toronto Stadium on Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 PM ET. It is the only one of their three group games staged outside the United States, and Croatia are once again listed as the away team. Panama, drawn from CONCACAF, are not a side Croatia run into often, and unfamiliar opponents have a way of complicating tournaments. This is the kind of matchday a fancied team is expected to win, yet the expanded field has already shown that few group games are straightforward.
The group closes in Philadelphia. Croatia host Ghana at Philadelphia Stadium on Saturday, June 27 at 5:00 PM ET, back on home-team footing and likely playing for something concrete. Group L could be decided long before this whistle, or it could hinge entirely on the result and on goal difference. Either way, the Ghana game is the date that matters most, because the final standings set which half of the knockout bracket Croatia drop into.
How Croatia’s path through the knockout rounds works
Come through Group L and the new format takes over. The 2026 World Cup stretches to 104 matches and adds a Round of 32 that the old 32-team event never had. Group winners and runners-up join the eight best third-placed teams in that round, and from there it is straight elimination football: Round of 32, Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final on July 19, plus a third-place match for the two beaten semifinalists.
Where Croatia sit in Group L shapes that journey. Win the group and the seeding leans in their favour. Scrape through in second or as a best third-placed team, and the bracket can throw up a far stiffer first assignment. The identity of that opponent cannot be known until all 12 groups have finished, since the knockout pairings only fall into place once every final group position is locked. You can watch the whole picture take shape, group by group and round by round, on the 2026 World Cup overview.
For Croatia, the knockout rounds are where a tournament is measured. A clean group exit counts for little if the first elimination game goes wrong, and the longer 2026 bracket means one extra round to survive compared with any World Cup before it. Every group result sits against that backdrop. Each one is really about the seeding for the games that decide who lifts the trophy.
There is a practical side to all this for anyone following along. Because the bracket only firms up as the final group games finish, Croatia’s knockout schedule arrives in pieces rather than all at once. The group dates are fixed now. A Round of 32 fixture would attach once Group L is settled, then a Round of 16 tie, and so on toward July 19, each with its own host city and kickoff. The tournament is spread across the USA, Canada, and Mexico, so a long Croatia run could mean new venues that none of the group games touched.
Downloading and syncing the Croatia schedule
Every Croatia fixture on this page can land on your calendar in a couple of taps. Use the download button on the schedule above to pull the full campaign as an ICS file, a CSV spreadsheet, or a printable PDF, and you can grab the whole group run or just a single match if that is all you are after.
The ICS file is the pick for most. Drop it into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook and Croatia’s group games arrive with the kickoff times already shifted to your own zone, the venue attached, and the host city named. Because the feed is wired to live tournament data, it also corrects itself: if a kickoff time moves, or once Croatia’s knockout opponents are confirmed, those entries change without any work from you.
Following more than one country this summer? The same downloads exist for every nation at the 2026 World Cup, so you can line Croatia’s three group games up against another team’s and see the whole tournament on a single calendar. Pencil in the Group L dates first, June 17, June 23, and June 27, then let the knockout fixtures slot in as the bracket fills out.
Croatia World Cup FAQ
Which group is Croatia in at the 2026 World Cup?
Croatia is in Group L at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, alongside England, Panama, and Ghana.
When does Croatia play at the 2026 World Cup?
Croatia's group-stage matches are vs England on June 17, vs Panama on June 23, and vs Ghana on June 27, with kickoff times shown above in your timezone. Knockout fixtures are added once their opponents are decided.
How do I download Croatia's World Cup schedule?
Use the download button on the schedule above to save Croatia's fixtures as an ICS calendar, CSV, or printable PDF, then sync to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook.
Add Croatia's World Cup fixtures to your calendar
Get every Croatia fixture, from the Group L games to any knockout match they reach, as an ICS, CSV, or printable PDF. One import keeps the listings accurate for the rest of the run.