Belgium keep rattling the lock but they're using the wrong key so far. Now Hazard takes on a dribble down the left and is hacked down by Cooper as he began to accelerate away and cut in. Free-kick, parallel with the right-angle of the box.   

De Bruyne takes a corner on the right, arcing it deep where Witsel wins the header but no one anticipates his lay-off and Panama clear. Escobar and Lukaku had a fearsomely illegal grapple before, during and after the corner that goes unpunished. 

Belgium take the corner shot, passing to the left-angle of the box where De Bruyne takes a touch then thrashes a right-foot shot high, wide and hideously over the bar. 

De Bruyne skates in from the right, beating Davis and Escobar and threads a pass through the six-yard box, arrowing towards Lukaku until the very well-positioned Torres intercepts at full stretch, doing the splits, to toe it behind for a corner as Lukaku was cocking his right knee. 

Booking for Davis for a pretty tame foul on De Bruyne. Play was waved on and Belgium have a corner. De Bruyne takes it short while Panama are  playing Rip van Winkle and Mertens exploits their drowsiness to thrash an early shot in from the right that billows into the side-netting. 

Long ball from Escobar up the right is well controlled by Murillo out by the right touchline, heading it up vertically like a performing seal then on to Barcenas who strides past Carrasco and into the box but having left the left wing-back trailing, he then is too hands-on with Vertonghen and is penalised.

Meunier is booked for a foul when leaping into Rodriguez. Not much contact and even less intent. 

What a chance for Hazard. It was a tight angle of about 150 degrees on the left when the captain Roman Torres made an almost catastrophically misjudged backpass. He hadn't picked his head up to see Hazard stealing behind him and the Belgium skipper was on to the weak pass in an instant but he could only stab his shot into the side netting.

In comes the corner and Mertens drops to his knees when Escobar fends him off with a hand to the solar plexus that was delivered with no force. Mertens ran into it and demanded a penalty. The referee isn't having it, neither is Mark Lawrenson who harrumphs like a scornful horse. 

Carrasco flashes  right-foot shot from the left of the box after a cute dummy from Lukaku let the ball roll across the 18-yard line until it got to the  marauding let wing-back. Penedo gets down to low to smother but from his clearance Belgium come straight back at pace and play in Mertens down the inside right channel and he swivels, cuts inside and fires a rising shot that Penedo claws over. 

Carrasco, who let Atletico in January for the Chinese Super League, and Vertonghen combine up the left and the former turns to roll it back to the Spurs captain who fires a long diagonal over the box and no one can reach it. 

Boyata's first touch is on Cooper's ankle, rather than the ball, clattering into him wide on Panama's right. Davis curls in the cross that is cleared and a hopeful lob back into the box is gathered by Courtois amid some frenzied jostling from Panama. 

From Coutois' long punt, Belgium probe up the left with Carrasco who laces the ball through for Lukaku but though he protests that he is due a corner, it seems he had the last touch when closed down by Escobar and Murillo. 

The huddles are over and Panama kick off. Roman Torres may be the captain but Gabriel Gomez is the de facto leader and he gives the final gee ups. They pass it back to Torres who whacks it 70m and gives Perez a hare to chase but the ball skips off the turf and into Courtois' grasp. 

The Panama team have gone for the full Dallaglio, absolutely belting out the anthem, some of them on the verge of a patriotic rapture. 

Eden Hazard and Roman Torres lead them out for the national anthem. I wonder which member of England's support staff is here today? 

Centre-forward Blas Perez is 37 and has to run his socks off every time he plays while the left-sided midfielder, Jose Luis Rodriguez, who is 19, plays for Gent in the Jupiler League, and has been drafted in from the U21s, gallops for the sheer joy of it. 

From Telegraph Sport's tournament guide:  The stadium's roof was removed to meet Fifa regulations, and the sweeping stands on either side of the pitch are in contrast to the smaller structures behind each goal. It bears resemblance to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It is 18 miles from the city centre, so fans will have to base themselves at one of the fan parks near the stadium. And only have the one pint, of course. Will host three group stage matches, one last-16 tie and a quarter-final.

In the Belgian fashion: 

Belgium Courtois; Alderweireld, Boyata, Vertonghen; Meunier,  De Bruyne, Witsel, Carrasco; Mertens, Eden Hazard; Lukaku.
Substitutes Mignolet, Vermaelen, Kompany, Fellaini, Thorgan Hazard,  Tielemans, Januzaj, Dembele, Batshuayi, Chadli, Dendoncker,  Casteels. 

Panama Penedo; Murillo, Roman Torres, Escobar, Davis;  Barcenas, Cooper, Gomez, Godoy, Jose Luis Rodriguez; Perez. 
Substitutes Calderon, Cummings, Gabriel Torres, Diaz, Machado,  Pimentel, Arroyo, Ovalle, Tejada, Avila, Baloy, Alex Rodriguez. 

Referee Janny Sikazwe (Zambia) 

Ninety minutes' ebb and flow can be a bit of a distraction for some. If you'd like to know the final score now, have a go on the Telegraph's ingenious prediction brain: