Croatia suffers unwanted record-breaking defeat as England thrash them 0-7 at home in UEFA Nations League

Croatia suffered the worst defeat in its national team history on Saturday, crumbling to a stunning 7-0 loss to England on home soil in Matchday 3 of the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League.

Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka each scored twice, with Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon and substitute Morgan Rogers also finding the net as Thomas Tuchel’s side ran riot in Rijeka, picking up their second win of the campaign in emphatic fashion.

The result sets an unwanted historical mark for Croatia, becoming the first team to lose by seven goals at home after having previously reached a World Cup final. The worst previous home losses by a World Cup winner or runner-up had been Brazil’s 1-7 defeat to Germany in 2014 and Hungary’s 1-7 loss to Yugoslavia in 1997.

Hungary’s other heaviest defeats of that margin, against West Germany in 1941 and the Netherlands in 2013, both came away from home, meaning Croatia’s loss stands alone as the first of its kind on home soil.

It’s also by a wide margin the heaviest defeat in Croatia’s own history, surpassing a 6-0 loss to Spain in September 2018, which had come less than two months after Croatia’s run to the World Cup final in Russia.

Kane’s remarkable consistency

Kane’s brace against Croatia was yet another entry in what has become one of the most consistent scoring records in English soccer history, extending a run of form that has carried into this season as well.

According to Opta, Kane became the first player to score 10 or more goals for England in three separate calendar years, netting 10 in 2026, 16 in 2021 and 12 in 2019.

The feat comes off the back of a historic 2025-26 season in which Kane scored 72 goals between Bayern Munich and England, the second-highest single-season tally ever recorded behind only Lionel Messi’s 82 in 2011-12, and ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s own best campaign of 69.

With numbers like that piling up year after year, Kane has firmly entrenched himself as one of the strongest Ballon d’Or candidates heading into this year’s conversation, a recognition that has eluded him throughout his career despite his staggering production.