England vs Panama, Live Score, FIFA World Cup 2018: Kane and Co Look to Confirm Round of 16 Berth

The players are in the tunnel and all set to come out onto the pitch. It is a warm afternoon in Novgorod. 

England and Panama have never played each other before, but Panama coach Hernan Gomez has come up against Gareth Southgate. That was in the 1998 World Cup in France when Colombia lost 2-0 to England. Southgate was an unused sub. Gomez was also the coach when England met Los Cafeteros in 1995, a match remembered for Rene Higuita's trademark scorpion kick being unveiled to the wider world.

Here's how the teams are shaping up...

Predictions for #ENGPAN? #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/lkH2AwXKFh

— FIFA World Cup 🏆 (@FIFAWorldCup) June 24, 2018

England have won their first two group games at the World Cup only twice ever. The first time was in 1982 in Spain, when they were knocked out in the second round, while the next was in 2006 when they went home in the quarter-final against Portugal. 

England Starting XI: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Trippier, Henderson, Young, Loftus-Cheek, Lingard, Sterling, Kane

Panama Starting XI: Penedo, Murillo, Escobar, R Torres, Davis, Gomez, Godoy, Cooper, J Rodriguez, Barcenas, Perez

Come on @England!! #ThreeLions

— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) June 24, 2018

Former England manager and midfielder Glenn Hoddle spoke to FIFA.com before the match and praised the unity in the squad. “I think they are a group of players that are young, similar age, I think there’s only a couple of players who are over 30 and that helps on the pitch to unite them, it really does, you get familiar," said the coach of the team at France 1998. "Whenever I was involved in teams as a player there was always a bit of a gap between ages and it was difficult off the pitch to try and mould that together to get that really good team spirit so the age is working in their favour.

“I don’t think there’s a spilt in the camp, put it that way. In the past there could have been club rivalries that weren’t shaken off when it would come to playing for England, but I think that’s gone with this group of players. Any manager wants that, for players to all be on the same wavelength and to respect each other. You haven’t got to be best buddies but as long as you have that respect for one another you can go a long way.”

While Panama's strongest aspect remains their defense, they will look to score against the English side who have the reputation of making life difficult for themselves in big tournaments. Panama have scored only two goals in their last seven games, where they drew two games. On the other hand England needed 17 chances against Tunisia before Harry Kane clinched the winner in stoppage time. Expecting the game to hold an attack vs defense theme is unlikely to be bad call. 

While England are heavily favoured to take all three points against Panama, manager Southgate said on  Saturday there was no chance his team will be guilty of complacency. "We've seen already the difficulty the big countries in terms of ranking have had in breaking down lower-ranked teams," cautioned Southgate. Progressing to the Round of 16 will be a welcome achievement for the English after their disastrous campaign in Brazil four years ago and the poor showing at the 2016 Euros.

Panama began their World Cup with a very dogged performance against the Belgians, but could not keep up the resistance for the full duration of the game. The first half saw them narrow things down in defense and look to hit the Belgians on the break - a ploy they are likely to continue with against England. Panama have nothing to lose but all to gain from this outing just like it was the case in their first World Cup game, and even if the odds are heavily stacked against them today, they will look to score their first World Cup goal. 

Ahead of this match, there has been controversy regarding the England side, with coach Gareth Southgate unhappy about the fact that the media had released the starting line-up for England in this game after they caught sight of it during an England training session. Later though, Southgate diffused the situation expertly and also said that there would definitely be changes made to the 'released line-up'. Earlier, the English camp had hit out at the media asking, "Are you with us or against us?"

Hello and welcome to the Sunday coverage for the 2018 FIFA World Cup on News18Sports' Live blog. The first match for the day will see England take on the new boys Panama, with the former champions looking to pin down a place in the Round of 16 along with Belgium from Group G. A shock defeat for England though will see them vulnerable to a first round exit, especially considering the tough final group stage fixture they have against Belgium.