Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic has claimed England are the strongest team from set-pieces at the World Cup following his side's 4-2 defeat in their opening Group L match.
The Three Lions secured victory thanks to second-half goals from Jude Bellingham and substitute Marcus Rashford, after an inspiring team talk from Thomas Tuchel. The teams had gone into the break level after Petar Musa equalised for Croatia on the stroke of half-time.
Despite a strong first-half performance, Croatia had no answer to England's improved display after the restart. Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic made several fine saves to keep the score down, but ultimately the damage was done from set-pieces.
Harry Kane scored from a retaken penalty before heading home a Declan Rice corner, highlighting England's prowess from dead-ball situations.
Dalic said: "Allow me first to congratulate England on the win. It was quite a strange game, quite a difficult game, as we expected it to be.
"In the first half, we played quite well. We really did good saves and we actually kept to everything we agreed on, but unfortunately we knew that the set-pieces were the greatest danger, and we conceded two goals after a corner.
"Until now we were quite good in the set-pieces. We did not concede goals that easily and we practised for this opponent.
"We knew England's way of play, we knew that they're making a block and we failed to do what we practised.
"Unfortunately we knew that the set-pieces were the greatest danger, and we conceded two goals after a corner. After the first corner, we concede a goal. After the second set-piece, a player just jumps in and scores again, so it was disastrous for us, specifically when it comes to a team such as England.
"They are strongest when it comes to goals from set-pieces. About 40 per cent of their goals are from set-pieces. We analysed that game, we knew that.
"We must be much, much better than we were today in our performance."
