London, 6 December 2025 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) - Thomas Tuchel expects his England players to “arrive with hunger” at next summer’s World Cup finals despite landing a group with 2018 finalists Croatia.

The German was in Washington DC on Friday to see his team placed in Group L alongside Zlatko Dalic’s side – who also finished third at the 2022 finals in Qatar – plus Panama and Ghana.

England’s first match will be against Croatia in either Toronto or Dallas on June 17, Ghana in Boston or Toronto on June 23 and then finally Panama in New York/New Jersey or Philadelphia on June 27.

The venues and kick-off times will be finalized on Saturday, when Tuchel can start planning in earnest for the finals and choose a base camp.

The University of Kansas had been mooted as an option but that now looks likely to be ditched in favour of a more easterly base.

For now, Tuchel’s focus is on the matches ahead of him after a flawless qualification campaign.

“I think it’s most important that you arrive with hunger and with excitement and we arrive as a team and we don’t worry about our opponents, we don’t worry about what can happen in the other group,” he said.

“The team did excellent in the last three camps and this was the mindset and the energy we want to keep having in the squad. Hopefully everyone is available. It’s still such a long way to go, even if it feels now it’s going to start next week.”

Croatia beat England in the 2018 semi-finals and Tuchel expects a tough test again from them next summer.

“Of course, (Croatia) are difficult,” he said.

“They’re proud, they’re full of talent. I’m pretty sure I have already a message from Mateo Kovacic (who he coached at Chelsea) on my phone. But yeah, of course, 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.

“I’ve always we said don’t wish for things, we don’t want to avoid at all costs anything, so now we know and now (we need) to be prepared.”