England open their Fifa World Cup 2018 campaign as manager Gareth Southgate seeking to banish sour memories of dismal performances at the final stages of major tournaments.
The Three Lions play Tunisia in the historic city of Volgograd on Monday, knowing that anything other than a win would scatter their pre-tournament plans, with a hard Belgium challenge looming later in Group G.
Here are the live updates:
Minute 47: Play resumes. Tunisia putting up a good fight as England looks for an early lead.
Things were going good for England from the beginning and Harry Kane scored a great goal to give England a deserved lead. But Kyle Walker's misadventure assured a chance for Tunisia to equalise from the spot.
Minute 44: The post saves it for Tunisia. Lingard puts a low ball past the goalkeeper but the ball goes out after hitting the outside post
Minute 39: Tunisia survives a scare. A goalline save of Delle Alli's header
Trivia: Ferjani Sassi's goal was the first penalty that England have conceded in regular play at a World Cup since June 1998 (Argentina's Gabriel Batistuta scored the last).
Minute 32: Tunisia wins a penalty after Kyle Walker fouls Ben Youssef. Yellow card for Walker
Minute 26: Tunisia earns their first corner.
Minute 25: Tunisia under peer pressure from the young England squad.
Minute 18: Kyle Walker releases a ball for Trippier down the right flank and he minuses a low ball into the box. It somehow misses Kane and Alli in the middle. Henderson gathers on the edge of the box and fires at goal on the half-volley, but Ben Mustapha saves it.
Trivia: Harry Kane has scored in seven of his last eight appearances for England.
Minute 16: Ben Mustapha (in) comes off the bench to replace Tunisia's injured goalie Hassen (out)
Minute 12: Play is stopped as Tunisia's goalkeeper down.
Minute 6: Hassen of Tunisia falls awkwardly as he raced out to confront Lingard. Receives treatment
Minute 4: Rahim Sterling misses a golden chance to have an early lead. Fails to connect a pass from Lingard
Minute 2: Tunisia under pressure since the first whistle.
Line-ups:
The nation credited of founding modern-day football managed to win the World Cup only once. The glory came more than half a century ago when the tournament was called Jules Rimet Trophy. Since then the Three Lions didn't manage to win any major tournament and the recent displays have been even worse. They crashed out without a win in the last World Cup four years ago, in Brazil, and haven't won a knock-out match in any tournament since 2006.
Thus a young England squad come to Russia on a mission to overcome the jinx. They boast of a solid qualifying campaign and encouraging friendly results against the likes of Brazil, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Friendly wins over Nigeria and Costa Rica in the tune-up to the quadrennial showpiece did no harm to the mood. There is also no controversy surrounding the squad unlike in previous major meets.
Southgate's lack of experience was much fretted over when appointed but the former Under 21s coach has cultivated an atmosphere of unity and a determination to bury past failures.
"This team shouldn't be burdened with that because they're a fresh group, most of them have very few international caps, so the future is all ahead of them," Southgate told reporters at the Volgograd Arena on Sunday.
Southgate is trying his best to lift the pressure off his squad after several former players have commented recently that the expectations of past tournaments stopped them from performing at their best level.
"The players know the starting XI for the first game already," he said
The squad has plenty of attacking talent with Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling expected to start up front with Jesse Lingard and Dele Alli playing behind them.
That means forwards Marcus Rashford and Jamie Vardy are likely to start on the bench, giving Southgate plenty of options if his chosen strike pair fail to deliver.
The quality is thinner at the back but Southgate is hopeful that players like Harry Maguire and Kieran Trippier can turn their club form into solid displays in Russia. Southgate also has the experience of Chelsea defender Gary Cahill (58 caps) and Manchester United's Ashley Young (33 caps).
Nine players will be making their World Cup debuts against Tunisia, with Jordan Henderson in the holding-midfield role and Harry Maguire part of a three-man defence allowing Ashley Young to play as an attacking left back.
England are the third youngest team in the tournament and in Gareth Southgate, they have a coach that understands his players the most.
In the warm-up matches played recently, Tunisia defeated Iran and Costa Rica and drew against reigning European champions Portugal while losing 0-1 to Spain.
England and Tunisia met at France 1998 with England winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes.
This time around, Tunisia's biggest weakness is the lack of superstars who can lead them to victory.
The squad, dominated by locally based players, doesn't include influential midfielder Youssef Msakni and the Tunisian league's top scorer Taha Yassine Khenissi, who have both been forced out by injuries.
Defender Syam Ben Youssef is now seen as an important figure in the team as he will have to deal with some of the best-attacking talents in the world.
The 1.89m tall player, who plies his trade in the Turkish league, is good at controlling high balls, but if England put the ball behind Tunisia's defence line, the African outfit could be in real trouble.