FIFA World Cup 2026 | Group L, Match 45 | Tuesday, 23 June 2026 Boston Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts | Referee: Said Martinez
Harry Kane. Eight yards out. Goal gaping. Volley. Over the bar.
England’s game in microcosm. Nineteen shots, three on target, 72% possession, and absolutely nothing to show for it. Ghana sat deep, defended brilliantly, nearly nicked it on the counter, and walked out of Boston Stadium with a point that almost certainly guarantees them a place in the Round of 32.
England 0-0 Ghana. Their second group game draw for the fourth successive major tournament. Scotland 2021. USA 2022. Denmark 2024. Ghana 2026. The pattern is relentless.
Jude Bellingham was named Player of the Match afterwards and immediately said he did not deserve it. He was right. Nobody on the England side deserved any awards from Tuesday evening.
Ghana came into this having beaten Panama 1-0 in their opener — Caleb Yirenkyi’s 95th-minute goal one of the matches of the tournament’s opening rounds. They had Jordan Ayew up front, the oldest Ghanaian ever to feature at a World Cup after his display against Panama, and Antoine Semenyo causing nightmares in wide areas. Carlos Queiroz set them up in a compact 5-3-2 that gave England absolutely no space to operate through the middle.
England were dominant and impotent in equal measure. Declan Rice took three corners in stoppage time alone. Marc Guéhi had two late shots on target — both requiring saves from Benjamin Asare, who had a quiet evening until the final ten minutes and then had plenty to do. The first half was particularly frustrating — Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke were surrounded by yellow shirts every time they drove forward, Ghana’s tracking runners doubling up and tripling up on the wingers before they could get a clean delivery in.
Four yellow shirts surrounding Noni Madueke as he darted forward told the story of the first half. England could and should have moved the ball quicker but they were trying to break apart an excellently organised low block, and this starting XI simply did not have enough creative pieces in the right positions.
The closest Ghana came to scoring was in the 50th minute. Senaya beat Gordon to the ball and pulled it back across the face of goal — it missed Lesley Williams’ run at the back post by a toe poke. Then in the 79th minute, the moment that had Boston’s 63,000 crowd — most of them in England white — making the kind of noise you do not want to make. Fatawu bounced Eze off the ball, Adu skipped into the box and appeared to be caught by Konsa. The referee waved it away. VAR checked and upheld the call — Semenyo, also involved in the sequence, was offside. England lucky. Very lucky.
That close call seemed to wake Tuchel’s side from their stupor. Saka came on and had a snapshot turned away by Asare in the 86th. Then O’Reilly — the substitute — headed a Reece James cross against the bar. The loose ball fell to Harry Kane, eight yards out, goal completely open. He volleyed it over. The groan from the England end was audible across the whole stadium.
Rice had three corners in the final minutes. Guéhi shot twice. None of it mattered. The whistle went. Ghana had their point. England had their frustration.
Thomas Tuchel was measured in his assessment. He said it need not be a crisis — Ghana were a tough opponent, disciplined and dangerous on the counter, and England still have four points from two games. He is right. They need a point against France to guarantee top spot in Group L. They will qualify regardless. The issue is where they finish and therefore who they face in the knockout stage.
Declan Rice, visibly frustrated in his post-match interview, said the team had to stay positive. Bellingham said the same. Both men know that what happened against Ghana — all that possession, all those corners, all that pressure and none of the product — cannot happen again when the tournament gets serious.
Four changes from the Croatia win had been made. Guéhi in for Stones. Djed Spence in for O’Reilly. Both were solid if unremarkable. The issue was not the back four.
Ghana, meanwhile, sit on four points after two games. They almost certainly go through to the Round of 32. For Queiroz — a coach whose entire career has been built on making sides hard to beat — Tuesday in Boston was everything he had asked for.
For live World Cup scores from every group, visit fawanews.org.uk. Full results, standings and knockout bracket at the official FIFA World Cup website.
England 0-0 Ghana FIFA World Cup 2026, Group L, Match 45 | Tuesday, 23 June 2026 Boston Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts | Referee: Said Martinez
England (4-3-3): Pickford; Konsa, Guéhi, Rice (C), James; Anderson, Bellingham, Spence; Madueke (Rashford 83′), Kane, Gordon Subs used: Saka (for Madueke 83′), Rashford, O’Reilly (for Spence 75′), Eze (for Anderson 67′)
Ghana (5-3-2): Asare; Yirenkyi, Amartey, Odoi, Mensah, Lamptey; Partey, Sulemana, Semenyo; Ayew, Fatawu Subs used: Adu (for Sulemana 79′), Williams (for Fatawu 83′), Oppong (for Senaya 87′), Rahman (for Adu 90+6′)
Stats: Possession England 72% — Ghana 20% (8% contested) | Attempts 19-2 | Shots on Target 3-0 | Half-time: 0-0
Group L standings: England 4 pts | Ghana 4 pts | France 3 pts | Croatia 0 pts
