{"id":214314,"date":"2026-06-19T01:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-2026-today-live-updates-latest-news-as-hosts-return-to-action-june-18-espn\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T01:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:51:25","slug":"world-cup-2026-today-live-updates-latest-news-as-hosts-return-to-action-june-18-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-2026-today-live-updates-latest-news-as-hosts-return-to-action-june-18-espn\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026 today: Live updates, latest news as hosts return to action – June 18 – ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re into the second week of the World Cup, and after England<\/a> got off to winning ways against Croatia<\/a>, you can follow all the latest news across the day right here, with ESPN.
Thomas Tuchel’s side’s victory was the headline from Wednesday night’s game, as a Harry Kane<\/a> brace, plus goals from Jude Bellingham<\/a> and Marcus Rashford<\/a>, saw England rise to the top of Group L.
– Czechia vs South Africa at World Cup 2026: TV channel, how to watch, kick-off time, live stream, referee, predicted line-ups<\/a><\/strong>
– Kane and Bellingham put on a show in England’s thrilling win over Croatia<\/a><\/strong>
– World Cup VAR review: What rule change earned England penalty retake vs. Croatia?<\/a><\/strong>
It was a thrilling performance and perhaps the best game at the tournament so far. After the match, Tuchel explained that at halftime he had told his players to take risks.
“I wanted them to do it our way, be brave, courageous, intense and on the front foot and just go for it,” he said.
Elsewhere in Group L, Caleb Yirenkyi<\/a>‘s 95th-minute tap-in put Ghana<\/a> level with England at the top of the table and denied Panama<\/a> their first ever point at a World Cup at the fourth time of asking.
In the final game of the night, Colombia<\/a> eventually overcame a resolute Uzbekistan<\/a> defence to win 3-1, with goals from Daniel Mu\u00f1oz<\/a>, Luis D\u00edaz<\/a> and J\u00e1minton Campaz<\/a>.
Those games came after one of the shocks of the tournament so far as Portugal<\/a> were held to a 1-1 draw by DR Congo.
Jo\u00e3o Neves<\/a>‘ header opened the scoring for Roberto Martinez’s side after just six minutes but they offered very little after that, and Yoane Wissa<\/a>‘s equaliser on the stroke of halftime was fully deserved.
It meant that it was a frustrating day for Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> as he was unable to match Lionel Messi<\/a>, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> and Erling Haaland<\/a> in scoring in the opening round of fixtures.
– World Cup 2026 today: Live updates, latest news as Kane, Ronaldo in action tonight – June 17<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re into the second week of the World Cup, and after England got off to winning ways against Croatia, you can follow all the latest news across the day right here, with ESPN.Thomas Tuchel’s side’s victory was the headline from Wednesday night’s game, as a Harry Kane brace, plus goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}