Irish pubs ahead of Croatia and England: sympathy for the Vatreni, the Premier League and the old joke “anyone but England”
When Croatia and England take the field at Dallas Stadium on 17 June in a Group L match at the 2026 World Cup, some Irish football fans could once again find a reason to cheer for the Vatreni. According to the official schedule of FIFA and the national associations, Croatia opens the tournament precisely against England, in a group that also includes Ghana and Panama. The match itself therefore carries clear sporting weight for both national teams, but off the pitch it also brings an additional fan layer: in Ireland, England’s matches at major tournaments are often followed through a mixture of neighbourly rivalry, humour and knowledge of English football. Croatia does not appear in that story as a random opponent, but as a national team that has already once become the ideal protagonist of an Irish pub anecdote.
That anecdote goes back to the summer of 2018, when Croatia defeated England 2:1 after extra time in the semi-final of the World Cup in Russia. According to FIFA’s report from that match, Kieran Trippier put England ahead after five minutes, Ivan Perišić equalised in the second half, and Mario Mandžukić scored the decisive goal in extra time and took Croatia to its first World Cup final. For some Irish fans, especially those who traditionally side with any team playing against England, that moment remained an easily memorable symbol: England believed it was getting close to the final, and Croatia stopped it in a match that is still often recalled ahead of a new meeting between the two national teams.
A match with clear sporting stakes
Croatia enters the clash with England as a national team that, in the last three editions of the World Cup, has built the status of a side capable of deep tournament runs. Ahead of the tournament, the HNS states that head coach Zlatko Dalić announced the final squad for the World Cup on 1 June 2026, and among the key players there are still footballers with great experience of major competitions, including Luka Modrić, Mateo Kovačić, Ivan Perišić and Andrej Kramarić. On the official HNS website, Croatia’s previous match before the tournament is listed as a victory against Slovenia in Varaždin on 7 June, confirming that the final preparations had entered their last phase. According to the same source, Dalić’s team plays its next match against England in Dallas.
England, on the other hand, enters the tournament under the leadership of Thomas Tuchel, who, according to announcements by FIFA and the English Football Association, took over the national team at the beginning of 2025. The English association announced that Tuchel named 26 players for the World Cup, while Harry Kane remains the team captain. The official announcement also states that England begins its campaign precisely against Croatia, which further underlines the importance of the opening round in the group. In the format of the 2026 World Cup, according to FIFA’s explanation, the tournament features 48 national teams for the first time, divided into 12 groups of four teams, with the top two from each group and the eight best third-placed teams advancing. This reduces the risk that one defeat immediately decides a team’s fate, but the first match still sets the rhythm, pressure and public impression.
For Croatia and England, this duel is more than an ordinary tournament opener. Croatia against England carries the memory of Moscow 2018, but also of a series of other encounters in which both national teams experienced major highs and disappointments. The English public, as a rule, welcomes every major tournament with high expectations, and the well-known fan phrase “It’s coming home”, created from the song “Three Lions” associated with the 1996 European Championship, has been part of English tournament culture for decades. Precisely because of that, England’s opponents, especially in countries where there is old sporting or political competition with the English, often receive temporary and informal support from an audience that otherwise has no special connection with that national team.
Why part of Ireland might cheer for Croatia
In the Irish case, that pattern carries particular weight. Ireland is not among the participants in the final tournament of the 2026 World Cup, so some fans there look elsewhere for their tournament sympathies. According to data published by Extra.ie ahead of the tournament, a survey conducted for Novibet among 548 adult respondents showed that a large share of Irish football fans enjoy it when England is knocked out of major tournaments, while a smaller share of respondents said they would openly support England at international tournaments. The same source states that 62 percent of respondents confirmed loyalty to an English Premier League club, but that this does not automatically mean support for the English national team.
That difference between club and international football is key to understanding the Irish relationship with England. During the season, many Irish fans follow Premier League clubs, know English players and support teams from Liverpool, Manchester, London or other English cities. When, however, a major international tournament begins, club closeness often gives way to a different kind of identity and rivalry. According to the same survey reported by Extra.ie, some respondents explain their support for England’s opponents through history, while others describe it as part of Irish sporting psychology and the tournament atmosphere. Such data cannot represent the unified view of the whole of Ireland, but it clearly shows that the phenomenon is not merely an internet joke.
Ahead of this encounter, Croatia fits into that dynamic in an almost ideal way. It is not a national team toward which there would be a mass or long-standing fan tradition in Ireland, nor would it be accurate to claim that Ireland as a whole will stand with the Vatreni. The more realistic picture is different: part of the audience could view Croatia with sincere sympathy because of its previous successes, part will support it because it is playing against England, and part will follow the match solely as a good reason for an evening in the pub. In that sense, Croatia does not need to have a deep connection with Irish football in order to become, for one evening, a desirable choice for those who follow the unwritten rule “anyone, just not England”.
Pub humour and the limits of a general claim
It is important, however, to avoid oversimplification. The Irish football audience is not homogeneous, and fan reactions to England cannot be reduced only to hostility or automatic support for the neighbours’ opponents. There are Irish fans who will support England because of players they have followed for years in the Premier League, because of family ties, life in the United Kingdom, or simply because they like the team led by Tuchel. There are also those who will be indifferent to the whole story, especially if they do not follow international football or if the club calendar matters more to them. That is why the claim that “the Irish are cheering for Croatia” would be exaggerated and inaccurate.
Still, in the atmosphere of major tournaments, nuances often become part of the fans’ game. Irish pubs, especially in Dublin and other larger cities, are traditionally places where international football is watched collectively, with humour, song and banter with friends who have different sympathies. When England appears on the television broadcast, the entire repertoire of jokes about English expectations, media headlines and the refrain “It’s coming home” can be activated even before the referee’s first whistle. Croatia is a fitting opponent in that context because it has already once, and on the biggest stage, played the role of the national team that brought English optimism back down to earth.
Such humour does not have to mean genuine hatred toward English fans or players. In many cases, it is a ritualised sporting rivalry, a joke passed from tournament to tournament that works precisely because the Irish and English football worlds are closely connected. The same fan can celebrate a goal by an English club in the Premier League on Saturday and a few weeks later, with a smile, cheer for Croatia in a match against the English national team. That apparent contradiction is not rare in football; club and national-team identities often live separately and change depending on the context.
Croatia as a reminder of 2018
The 2018 semi-final remains the central point that makes this encounter stand out in the eyes of an audience that does not follow Croatia every day. FIFA reported at the time that Croatia reached the final by coming from behind against England, after conceding an early goal and withstanding pressure in a match that went into extra time. Mandžukić’s goal in the 109th minute became one of the best-known moments in Croatian national-team football, but also one of the key episodes of English tournament frustration. For Irish fans inclined toward anti-English humour, precisely such an outcome had the perfect dramatic shape: great expectations, a popular refrain, extra time and the sudden end of the English dream.
Since then, both national teams have changed, but the symbolism has not disappeared. Croatia won third place in Qatar in 2022, further strengthening its reputation as a team that rarely fades quietly at World Cups. After the Gareth Southgate era, England got a new head coach and once again enters the tournament with the ambition of ending its long wait for a major trophy after the 1966 World Cup. According to UEFA’s overview of the England national team ahead of the tournament, Kane leads a side that plays in a group against Croatia, Ghana and Panama, while England hopes for a second major title after sixty years of waiting. Precisely that level of expectation makes England a permanently grateful target for fan jokes from the neighbourhood.
For Croatia, meanwhile, the match is an opportunity to confirm its competitiveness in a demanding group already in the first round. Group L is not only a story about the old Croatian-English rivalry; Ghana has a long tradition of strong performances by African national teams at World Cups, while Panama, in this format, can look for an opportunity to spring a surprise. Since the best third-placed teams also advance under the new system, every match carries double value: points are important for the table, and goal difference can become decisive in comparisons among third-placed teams. That is why neither Croatia nor England can view the encounter only through the nostalgia of 2018.
Between real support and fan theatre
If shouts for Croatia are heard again in Irish pubs on 17 June, that will not necessarily mean that Croatia has become the second national team of Irish fans. It is more likely to be a combination of several layers: respect for Croatian results, memories of the Moscow semi-final, a desire for a good football outcome and the old fan need to bring England down from the level of expectations to the level of results on the pitch. Ahead of the tournament, Extra.ie also mentioned the example of an organised watch party evening in Dublin for the England-Croatia match, with a campaign that plays precisely with the idea that the “second-favourite national team” of many Irish fans is the one playing against England. Such events further show that this is a social and entertaining phenomenon, not only a sporting choice.
That is also why the Croatia-England match goes beyond the boundaries of Group L itself. For England, it is the beginning of another attempt to justify its status as a favourite and avoid early pressure. For Croatia, it is an opportunity to show once again that getting past it at World Cups is difficult without great effort. For some Irish fans, however, it will be an evening in which the old phrase “anyone but England” can turn into temporary support for the Vatreni. Some will do it with sincere sympathy for Croatia, some out of habit, some as a joke, while some will nevertheless cheer for England because they see, in its shirt, players they follow throughout the entire season.
That is why it is most accurate to say that Croatia, ahead of the clash with England, can expect some symbolic and loud pub support in Ireland, but not a unified fan consensus. Reality will, as often in football, be a mixture of personal sympathies, local humour, historical rivalry and television spectacle. If Mandžukić’s goal from Moscow is mentioned again or the English refrain is turned into a joke, that will say more about the long tradition of sporting teasing than about a lasting alignment with one national team. Croatia and England will play for points on the pitch, while in Irish pubs many will watch the same match as a continuation of an old, well-known fan performance.
Sources:
- FIFA – official schedule and information on the England – Croatia match at the 2026 World Cup (link)
- Croatian Football Federation – official national-team page, squad list, Croatia’s previous and next match (link)
- England Football / The FA – official announcement of England’s squad for the 2026 World Cup and the Group L schedule (link)
- FIFA – explanation of the 2026 World Cup format with 48 national teams and qualification for the round of 32 (link)
- FIFA / Inside FIFA – report from the 2018 World Cup semi-final Croatia – England and Mandžukić’s decisive goal (link)
- Extra.ie – report on a survey among Irish football fans ahead of the 2026 World Cup and their attitude toward England (link)
- ESPN – overview of the history of the song “Three Lions” and the fan refrain “It’s coming home” (link)
- UEFA – overview of the England national team at the 2026 World Cup, group, head coach and historical context (link)