Well, it certainly could have been easier. If England could have picked their opponents for the 2026 World Cup group stage, they probably would not have chosen a Croatia team that finished third at the last tournament and knocked them out in the semi-finals at the previous one in Russia, or a Ghana side containing two of the most exciting forwards in the Premier League.At least Panama, who they destroyed 6-1 in the group stage in 2018, represent as close a guarantee to a win as is possible. A testing group, however, is just what Thomas Tuchel's side need to warm-up for the knockout rounds, when the expanded World Cup will truly kick into life. England are the only team at the 2026 World Cup to have won all their qualifying games without conceding a goal, and yet the confidence that comes from such a dominant display in those eight matches has to be balanced with the fact that Tuchel's side are yet to face a top team, with their friendlies pitting them against Wales and Senegal, the latter beating them last June.Having a relatively tough run of opening matches will help sharpen England's reflexes and test their mentality, which should put them in good stead for the business end of the tournament. The Three Lions will need to be prepared because they have a truly daunting path to the final, potentially meeting former winners in every stage from the quarter-finals onwards. But while Gareth Southgate's England tended to be cowed by playing the very best teams, Tuchel has sought to remove the fear factor from his players, fostering fierce competition among his squad, which has translated into them wanting to tear into opponents rather than being overawed by them. As the fourth-ranked team in the world and runners-up in the last two European Championships, England have no excuse for not going all the way, regardless of how the draw has panned out.England will begin the tournament after nearly everyone else when they play Croatia on June 17, six days after Mexico and South Africa get the show on the road.The mere mention of Croatia makes many England fans shudder. They came from behind to beat Gareth Southgate's side in the semi-finals of 2018, using the perceived arrogance of the constant talk of 'Football Coming Home' as fuel. Croatia were also responsible for England's darkest moment in the 21st Century: Their failure to qualify for Euro 2008 after losing 3-2 to Slavan Bilic's side at a rain-swept Wembley. England avenged that defeat by thrashing Croatia home and away while qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, while Southgate's side also got their own back, beating Zlatko Dalic's men in the Nations League and in the first game of Euro 2020.Croatia defied the odds once again at Qatar 2022, reaching the semi-finals after coming back to beat Japan and then Brazil on penalties, and few teams have their endurance factor in the big moments. But they are a team of the past, as their dismal showing at Euro 2024 showed.Captain Luka Modric recently turned 40, but he is far from the exception when it comes to veterans with prominent roles in the team. Ivan Perisic will be 37 when the tournament comes around while Andrej Kramaric will be almost 35. England should beat them.Next up is Ghana. The Black Stars are the lowest-ranked team England will face in the group after they suffered the ignominy of failing to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. They recovered some pride by winning eight of their 10 World Cup qualifiers to finish top of their group, however, and they have more than enough big names to keep Tuchel's side on their toes. Antoine Semenyo is one of the most productive players in the Premier League and will be the one England will be looking to keep a lid on, with Mohamed Kudus a close second. Semenyo has, it should be pointed out, failed to reproduce his club heroics for his country, scoring only three goals and providing one assist in 32 internationals.Ghana's top scorer in World Cup qualifying was Leicester City striker Jordan Ayew, who just so happens to be the son of Abedi Pele, the greatest Black Stars player of all time. Coach Otto Addo, who led them to the last World Cup in Qatar but left before the AFCON qualifying debacle, has European experience as an assistant with Borussia Dortmund and Danish side Nordsjaelland, and has bolstered their threat from dead balls by with the help of the Belgian video analyst and set-piece coach Gregory De Grauwe.They will be no pushovers, but England should have more than enough resources to also beat them.England will have hoped to have at least assured themselves of a place in the knockout rounds when they meet Panama in their third and final group game. The 6-1 shellacking of the Central American nation in Nizhny Novgorod smashed England's previous record win at a World Cup, with Harry Kane's hat-trick against the tournament debutants going a long way towards him winning the Golden Boot. Panama failed to pick up a point in Russia, but have advanced as a team since then under the tutelage of Thomas Christiansen. The former Leeds United coach, who spent most of his playing career in Spain and represented La Roja despite being born in Denmark, took Panama to the final of the 2023 Gold Cup, the 2024-25 Concacaf Nations League and to the quarter-finals of the Copa America in 2024, which was held in the United States. Strangely, the team that are ostensibly the minnows of Group L could pose the toughest challenge to England as they set up in an extremely conservative 5-4-1 formation, the same shape that Andorra used in their narrow defeats to Tuchel's side in qualifying. But if England need a result to qualify or finish top of the group, they will surely get it. Indeed, their relentless record in qualifying suggests Tuchel will not let them relax even if the game is a dead rubber.The good news is that England have avoided some of the toughest conditions when it comes to temperature, humidity and altitude. The exact venues and kick-off times will not be confirmed until Saturday evening, although most of England's games have been designated for the eastern region, with one exception: Dallas.Their opening game with Croatia will be in either Toronto or Dallas, places with vastly different climates. The good news is though that if the game is held in Dallas - or Arlington, to be exact - AT&T Stadium has a retractable roof and its climate can be controlled, protecting the players from the worst of the Texas summer and its temperatures that can reach 34C degrees. Toronto represents the best conditions for football, and England could also play Ghana in the Canadian city, meaning there is potential for back-to-back games without travel. The alternative is Boston, which will be hotter and with the added disadvantage of the Gillette Stadium having no roof and thus no shelter from the sun or the rain. The same is true of the MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the two options for the final game against Panama.If England top Group L, their path through the knockout stage will see them criss-cross the continent, heading south to the indoor Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the last 32, then all the way to Mexico City, with lower temperatures but significant altitude, for the last 16. The humidity of Miami would be a new challenge for Tuchel's side in the quarter-finals, with a return to Atalanta on the cards in the semis before a final in New York/New Jersey.The bad news is that England will have to do a serious amount of travelling. If they play in Dallas, Boston and New Jersey, top the group and make it to the final, they will travel 6,467 miles between matches. If they finish second, the total distance would climb even further to 7,337. Neither estimate includes travel to and from their base. England were considering basing themselves in Kansas City, but those plans could be scrapped for somewhere more convenient if all their group games are on the east coast. The Three Lions will attempt to acclimatise by having a pre-tournament camp in Miami, which means players could be away from their families for as long as eight weeks. It will be a test of physical and mental endurance, and even before the draw, Tuchel was frank about how tough it will be for his team."We will suffer and we need to arrive with the right mindset," he told ITV. "There is not a solution for everything because it's not foreseeable. Is the thunderstorm coming? Is there a delay in the match, in the 80th minute? In the eighth minute? No matter what the schedule is, in which group you are, there will be a lot of traveling, and with a lot of travel comes delays. You need to be patient. You will spend a lot of time in planes and buses, so I think the mindset needs to be right, that we accept it, and we overcome it."Even withstanding Croatia's relentless mentality in tournaments and Ghana's individual quality, England will still expect to finish top of Group L, which would earn them a theoretically comfortably last-32 tie against a team finishing third from one of Groups E, H, I, J or K. Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Algeria are among the teams they could face in the first knockout round, and it would be a shock as great as losing to the United States in 1950 if England were to fail to get through. A worst-case scenario would see them face Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard's Norway, and even then, England would still be expected to win, even if by a narrow scoreline.The winners of Group A would likely await them if they did make it that far, with Mexico and South Korea their most likely opponents in the last 16. England would back themselves to get past either of those sides as well. But in the quarter-finals, the bare minimum for the Three Lions, is where things could get very tasty indeed, with Brazil their most likely opponent. Get past the five-times winners, and then reigning champions Argentina or Portugal could await in the last four. And if England were to somehow make it through, then it could be a Euro 2024 showpiece rematch with Spain in the final in New Jersey.That's admittedly lot of hypotheticals and it is never easy to predict what will happen at a World Cup, especially one involving 48 teams and being played across three massive countries. But one thing is clear: England should fear no one and nothing.