England take the lead against Panama from a corner
England take the lead against Panama from a corner Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

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GOAL!! England 6-0 Panama

Kane has his hat-trick. VAR might scrub this off, though. 

60 min England 5-0 Panama

Panama move the ball to the right and back again as England set themselves in compact defensive lines to win the ball back. Stones has three runners upfield but doesn't make the right choice. 

58 min England 5-0 Panama

Panama continue to engage in some after-tackle filth, hands in faces, sly kicks and digs.  

56 min England 5-0 Panama

Pickford taps it to Walker who plays it up to Henderson and he gives Kane a hare to chase with a long ball up the inside-right channel. Escobar, who has improved, gets there first. 

55 min England 5-0 Panama

No criticism that England have not resumed as they finished the half. They're trying to find their rhythm. 

54 min England 5-0 Panama

Fingers burnt by the penalty, they keep their hands largely to themselves this time. But Trippier's centre is well-defended. 

 

52 min England 5-0 Panama

With all the caveats about how useless Panama have been defensively and in the final third, Sterling is playing very well, adopting some excellent positions and playing some penetrating passes. England have a throw on the right and give it to Loftus-Cheek who tries to round Escobar by the byline but is tackled. England corner. Panama;s defenders are warned again. 

50 min England 5-0 Panama

Kane has the ball on halfway and Sterling hurtles out of the blocks beyond the defence when Kane releases it. Brilliant run but Kane's pass was too heavy. They had beaten the offside trap but the throughball  was too close to Penedo who pelted out to win the race with Sterling. 

48 min England 5-0 Panama

But Barcenas misjudges Perez's run and plays the wrong pass into the box. England pounce on it and set off on a rapid counter. 

47 min England 5-0 Panama

Panama are passing the ball around slowly, keen, one thinks, not to be humiliated further. They inject some pace now and work a triangle up the right. 

46 min England 5-0 Panama

England attack up the right, Loftus-Cheek and Trippier combining well and crossing to the back post for Kane who beat Torres but cannot squeeze an attempt on goal. 

John Stones's second and Harry Kane's second

John Stones scores his second England goal Credit: AP Photo/Victor Caivano

And here's Harry Kane's second penalty. He went the same way but even if the keeper had it would have amputated his right hand at the wrist. 

Harry Kane scores his fourth World Cup goal of 2018 Credit:  REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

 

Half-time reading

Here's Lingard's goal and Sterling deserves great praise for his cute pass:

Jesse Lingard puts England 3-0 up Credit: REUTERS/Matthew Childs
Jesse Lingard celebrates after scoring his first World Cup goal Credit: AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

 

 

 

Sorry went too early - it's only half-time of course

Here's Paul Hayward on the first goal:

"Grappling in the box looks clever until you ignore the runner, as Panama did there with John Stones, who darted between wrestling matches to put England in front.@

 

Half-time

What a terrific first-half performance form England. They lead a World Cup game 5-0 and there's still 45 minutes to come. If Panama finish with 11 men I'm a Dutchman. 

45+1 min England 5-0 Panama

Maguire is smacked in the mouth by Cooper who swings his arm as they leap. That looked deliberate. Panama are losing all discipline and the plot. Looks like they'll go down swinging, literally. Dirty beggars. 

44 min England 5-0 Panama

So Kane joins Lukaku and Ronaldo on four goals apiece. 

 

GOAL! England 5-0 Panama

Escobar and Torres pantomime disapproval at the penalty and are booked which eats up more time for Kane to settle himself. But he isn't fazed. He torpedoes it into the same place. 

England penalty!

Kane is being grappled at a corner. The referee warns the players not to do it three times but they don't listen. Godoy tries to bodyslam Kane. 

40 min England 4-0 Panama

Amazing. Henderson receives the pass on the edge of the penalty area back to goal and hooks a cross to Kane beyond the right post. He nods it across to Sterling whose header from a couple of metres is saved by Penedo and Stones is first to the rebound on the right and forces his header into the roof of the net. 

 

GOAL!! England 4-0 Panama

John Stones from a perfectly-executed free-kick routine. 

36 min England 3-0 Panama

Lingard, battered from pillar to post for the first 15 minutes, glides in from the left to take Sterling's stabbed pass and bends a venomous shot from the left side of the D around the onrushing, panicking defenders and into the top right corner of the goal. This is a bit like England v Poland from 1986. 

 

GOAL!! England 3-0 Panama

Lingard with a lovely right-foot shot from 20m, steered into the top corner. 

33 min England 2-0 Panama

Lingard bails Maguire out at the back with a diligent and dogged tracking run after Maguire loses his position. He has many attributes Maguire but he needs too screw the nut. There are too many errors. 

30 min England 2-0 Panama

England free-kick 35m out. Trippier will take. The break affords Murphy and  Mowbray some time for golf banter. Trippier strikes it well, curling it deep beyond the back post where it is met by Maguire's run. He heads it back across goal and over the other post. He should have squared it to his team-mates in the middle or gone for goal but it turned into neither one thing or the other. 

Harry Kane strikes the penalty Credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

 

28 min England 2-0 Panama

Much better from Panama who enjoy a couple of minutes of sinuous movement and sharp passing. They work an opening through Cooper and Perez for Rodriguez to run on to a threaded pass in the box, to the left. He has Godoy peeling off his marker and free but lashes a  shot from an acute angle into orbit. What a waste. 

26 min England 2-0 Panama

Young penalised for kicking Cooper where the sun doesn't shine as he raised his leg to control a bouncing ball. Henderson hooks a lob over the back four for Sterling who wins it but was offside. Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been booked for a foul just after the third kick-off. Here's Kane putting the penalty in something my son and his schoofriends call 'top bins':

Harry Kane buries England's second from the spot Credit: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

 

24 min England 2-0 Panama

Panama's strategy seems to be to inject as much needle into this as possible, after all sorts of niggly fouls and delaying tactics, they complain that England take too long in their celebrations, this after forestalling the taking of the pen by almost 150 seconds.  

22 min England 2-0 Panama

Blimey! That was some penalty. He almost ripped the net with his thunderfoot. 

GOAL!! England 2-0 Panama

Yes he can, despite some shoving from Barcenas on Lingard on the 18-yard line and Gomez trying to spook the taker. Smashes it into the top-right corner.

No offside

So Kane will take the penalty. Can he score in his fifth successive match for England? 

England penalty!

Lingard bundled over by Escobar and Torres as he ran down the inside-right channel. VAR is checking whether he was offside. 

18 min England 1-0 Panama

 Torres kicks across Sterling's foot and catches his studs. He goes down screaming blue murder until the ref stops the game for his self-inflicted pain. 

 

16 min England 1-0 Panama

For the third time Panama exploit hesitation from Young and Maguire on the left of England's defence to dial up the speed and shift the ball inside quickly. Barcenas, striding forward down the inside-left channel, meets the pass from Murillo and bends a left-foot shot that has Pickford scrambling across goal and diving but it trims the outside of the side-netting. Close, though. 

14 min England 1-0 Panama

Dawdling by Torres invites Kane twice to have a run at the defence but he can't keep the ball under control and the opposition recover. Here's Stones' goal:

Stones puts England into the lead Credit: Alex Morton/Getty Images

 

12 min England 1-0 Panama

England lose possession cheaply from the free-kick, Maguire's poise and precision absent so far. Barcenas accelerates away from him and into the box. Walker clears up the first mess but England cause another that Panama's haste squanders. Walker's lunge stopped Perez tapping in at the back post. 

 

11 min England 1-0 Panama

Cooper lunges in at Lingard just past halfway and clatters into his shin pad malevolently. Yellow card. 

9 min England 1-0 Panama

Maguire and Kane were being grappled and obstructed with octopus arms but Stones wriggled free of his assailant and stooped to steer in a bullet header from Trippier's fine corner. 

 

GOAL! England 1-0 Panama 

John Stones buries a header from the penalty spot. 

7 min England 0-0 Panama

Good pass from Walker, diagonally out to the right flank, for Trippier's clever run and teh full-back wins a corner. 

6 min England 0-0 Panama

Panama's tempo has caught England on the hop a bit and Rodriguez, the victim of Henderson's foul, is felled again as they snap into tackles. The free-kick is taken too long and England come back upfield but at no great pace. 

5 min England 0-0 Panama

Panama take the free-kick into the box Kane heads clear and Barcenas wallops a 25m shot over the bar. Then Panama exploit the short goalkick and Maguire's poor pass to break down the left and find space for Godoy to shoot and he too thrashes it high and wide. Terrible finish but England invited the pressure with dozy play there. 

3 min England 0-0 Panama

After 90secs treatment Lingard is passed fit to continue and Panama restart, knocking it down the left where Henderson is penalised for a strong tackle. 

2 min England 0-0 Panama

And drags a pass back from the byline to Lingard whose first touch is clumsy and he has to go up to try to win it back in the air. Gomez elbows him in the mouth as they challenge for it but the referee deems it accidental. He did swing his arm back but he isn't penalised. 

1 min England 0-0 Panama

Panama 's huddle finally breaks up and England kick-off, attacking to the left and overloaded on the right flank. They roll it back to Stones and the three players on the right bomb forward but they play it short and move it to the left and back again. Trippier slips a pass past Davis and Loftus-Cheek rounds him. 

Two minutes to go

The players chat and shake their legs. 

Some Panama fans and players

Have gone for the full Dallaglio, moist eyed and bellowing it out. Tune. 

England stand with their arms across each other's shoulders 

For the national anthem and when it ends Harry Kane shouts 'Come on!, Come on!' There are far more Panama fans there than England's and they sing lustily along. 

Jesse Lingard

Is being interviewed by Gabby Logan and is asked to do his Scouse and Cockney accents. The first is passable, the second risible. Pace Dr Johnson: It's not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Pre-hydration routines

This really should be the match shirt.  

Harry Kane takes a swig Credit: Maja Hitij - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

 

The temperature is heading up 34C

Gareth Southgate says he will be using England's hydration strategy but there will be no official water breaks. On the Brexit scale 34C is 93F so he will have to employ his substitutes judiciously. "We think we will have the vast majority of the play, which is good in this heat, but we have to move the ball quickly and use width intelligently. The prize for today is to qualify with a game to spare but we have to concentrate on our performance. We need to be patient."

Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker 

Have just embraced and jumped up and down, a la Chandler and Joey, in imitation of the excitement of the Panama World Cup panel. Them Shearer reveals that he has had a word with Harry Kane and told him to speak to the referee about holding at corners before they are taken. 

Now the BBC is using Joy Divsion's Day of the Lords for a montage. I applaud their taste but it's sacrilege to have people talking over it. Music is to be listened to, not deployed as background. 

Those starting XIs in black and white and their records

England (3-1-4-1-1) Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Henderson; Trippier, Loftus-Cheek, Lingard, Young;  Sterling; Kane.

Panama (4-5-1) Penedo; Murillo, R Torres, Escobar, Davis; Barcenas, Cooper, Gomez, Godoy, J Rodriguez; Perez.

 Referee Gehad Grisha (History)

England wear white, Panama red

See how our Anna Wintour, Thom Gibbs, assesses the strips:

 

Spoiler alert

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 AI forecaster:

 

The heat is oppressive

Jason Burt reports:

The air conditioning in the England dressing room has been turned up to the maximum ahead of kick-off against Panama in an attempt to keep the players as cool as possible before the game starts.

The players will also be given a fresh kit at half-time and iced towels to try and control their body temperatures with the temperatures on the pitch here in Nizhny Novgorod soaring towards the high 30 degrees celsius.

The England medical staff are confident that the air conditioning in the dressing room will help although there may be a concern that the dry air could affect the breathing of the players, especially those susceptible to asthma. 

However the medics do not believe this will be a problem with dehumidifiers in use and, because the stadium is new, an air conditioning system which means it is ice cold inside the dressing room.

In previous matches in such conditions England have also used fans inside the dressing room with players wearing ice vests as they warmed up but the more light-weight training gear is believed to be sufficient this time. Sometimes kit is also sprayed with a cooling agent and water to also help.

A big issue will be hydration. Players will be urged to take on board as much fluid as possible and to hydrate at every opportunity during the match.

The design of the stadium means that around half of the pitch will be in shade at kick-off but heat will undoubtedly be a factor.

 

Gareth Southgate acknowledges the England supporters before the game Credit: REUTERS/Matthew Childs

It may be roasting but Southgate's not taking off that weskit for anyone.

Deux bieres et un pastis, garçon, s'il-vous plait.

England make one change

Ruben Loftus-Cheek comes in for Dele Alli and will partner Jesse Lingard in the midfield duo ahead of Jordan Henderson. Raheem Sterling starts and Marcus Rashford will continue as an impact sub. He's a terrific talent, Rashford, but I can see the sense in employing his impact as a substitute and his understanding of the opportunities the role provides - he seems more aware of them than Sterling and his better control in tight areas can turn tired defenders. If Sterling does his job and keeps running hard down the channels, Rashford can cash in later on. 

And another well-wisher

Whose original intention was to retire at the end of this, his fourth World Cup, but wisely decided to call it a day 10 months early:

 

Panama avoid team sheet melodrama

By naming an unchanged XI for today's match 24 hours early:

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. 

Pointers from the Belgium game - Murillo is pretty good, Roman Torres is an ox, Barcenas a snapper and young Rodriguez is going to be a fine player. 

England fans begin to arrive at the stadium

Flying the flag Credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

 Robert Mendick and Wil Crisp report:

"Travelling England fans have never been so middle-class. Nizhny Novgorod, a city on the Volga once so sensitive it was ‘closed’ to visitors in Soviet times, was laid siege on Saturday by a small army of England fans made up of lecturers, chartered accountants, investment bankers, company CEOs and the like.

[The game's gone]

A man, a plan ... a palindrome

Opposition research - plenty of troubling stuff that comes under that category in today's newspapers. This is far more wholesome:

 

Ruben Loftus-Cheek should make his first World Cup start

Here's what Ruud Gullit had to say about him last September:

"I always loved this guy, also when he was at Chelsea. I saw him playing yesterday as well.

“He’s so influential and I think the more he plays, the better he gets. He knows how to play his game, he knows how to go forward.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is expected to start in place of Dele Alli Credit: David Ramos - FIFA

“I want him in the centre, he needs to have the ball. Technical, strong, he is a fantastic player. He is the one who has the brains.

“He’s a future England player, this one. I really believe in this boy, he’s a good player."

Here's what Paul Hayward has to say about his selection:

 

England missed a spectacular night in St Petersburg

People watch fireworks and a brig with scarlet sails on the Neva River during the Scarlet Sails festivities marking school graduation in St Petersburg Credit: Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

 

Team news

Matt Scott reports that England will make only one change rather than the anticipated two and that Raheem Sterling, scorer of 18 Premier League goals and provider of 11 Premier League assists en route to the title last year, has been retained in the starting XI. Read the full story here

Raheem Sterling will start his fourth World Cup match for England and second in succession in Nizhny Novgorod against Panama Credit: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

 

England's qualification game

In an intriguing twist to Wonderful World, Gareth Southgate adapted the words of Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert and Lou Adler to say history is not the important thing for this team’. Biology? Science book? The French they took? Word came there none. The only thing that matters, he says, is making their own history and they can certainly share an achievement today if they defeat Panama and join ‘Ron’s 22’ from 1982 and Sven’s band of  Baden-Baden Charlie Big Potatoes from 2006 as England sides who have won their opening two group games at a World Cup. 

The England manager, by contrast with his players, is a student of history (no word on geography, trigonometry, algebra or what a slide rule is for). Southgate  is known to the friends he grew up with at Crystal Palace as ‘'Nord’, a name bestowed on him by Wally Downes, but it is one that reflects the observational sharpness of a dressing-room wit. The young Gareth, with his eight O-levels and relatively affluent upbringing in Crawley, contrasted markedly with his more cocky and shrewdly streetwise South London contemporaries in the Palace youth team.

His considered, unhurried way of speaking reminded Downes of Denis Norden, erstwhile co-writer of Take It From Here and a regular TV face hosting It’ll be Alright on the Night and speaking with his mouth full while selling Nuttall’s Mintoes. In an age when anyone in the game who spoke measuredly or enjoyed reading was instantly derided as ‘Prof’ or ‘Brains’, a descendant of the old Army contempt for ‘book learning’ characterised in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’s ‘Mr La-Di-Dah Gunner Graham’, ‘Nord’ was a cut above.

It stuck but his greenness did not. With the help of the goalkeeper Andy Woodman, the Hush Puppies and Ronnie Corbett golf sweaters that were so mocked behind his back were eased out and a lifelong friendship chronicled in a joint autobiography, Woody and Nord, nurtured them both. Southgate’s intelligence and application benefited him, too, and he became the youngest full-time captain in the country in 1993-94, the season he led Palace back into the Premier League.

After Palace’s relegation in 1995, Southgate left in the summer for Aston Villa where he expected to join Andy Townsend and Ian Taylor in his usual central midfield role. So did Brian Little, the man who signed him for £2.5 million, but a fortnight later could not resist buying Mark Draper when Leicester finally agreed to sell. Little, an underrated, strangely neglected manager, put him between Ugo Ehiogu and Paul McGrath in a back-three, a move so successful that England called him up after only eight games in the position.

Not what he seems: Gareth Southgate Credit: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

When Des Walker lost his aura of impregnability in the early Nineties, England reverted to type at the back, ‘head-on-a-stick’ centre-halfs, as Gary Lineker called them, or export maypoles, the static object around which foreigners would dance. Terry Venables wanted something more progressive, a centre-back who was comfortable moving out of defence to pick up opponents attacking from deeper positions. Southgate flourished in the role and, despite the penalty miss in the Euro 96 semi-final that will forever shadow him, continued to perform astutely in Glenn Hoddle’s sides, never better than during the 0-0 draw with Italy that secured qualification for the 1998 World Cup.

His game continued to evolve well into his thirties, becoming as accomplished an orthodox central defender in a back-four as he had been in a three and it is a testament to his quality and durability that when Rio Ferdinand was banned for missing a drugs test in 2003, Sir Alex Ferguson immediately tried to sign the 33-year-old from Middlesbrough.

Looking back it seems obvious that he was born to manage but given that he has moved at the Football Association from Head of Elite Development to Under-21 head coach to England manager, it is odd to recall that he succeeded Steve McClaren at the Riverside without a Pro Licence, in the face of much opposition from the League Managers Association, and had to qualify on the job.

Southgate looks the model of a modern coach, even down to the DH Lawrence beard - cosmopolitan, flexible and cerebral. Yet there are echoes too of Malcolm Allison and Dave Sexton, whose undervalued toughness complemented their sprightly creativity and aptitude for teaching.

But don’t be fooled by appearance. Twice in the past he has identified that inspiration is key - first when he witheringly said of Eriksson’s half-time team-talk when England had just conceded a stoppage-time equaliser in the 2002 World Cup quarter-final: “We were expecting Winston Churchill and instead got Iain Duncan Smith.” And then again in 2006 when advocating a successor for Eriksson: “I want an Englishman who’s going to say: ‘Remember Churchill.’”

If anyone in Nizhny Novgorod hears strains of ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ delivered in the extraordinary, deliberate tones of Denis Norden this afternoon, there can be only one culprit: a man who continues to defy all preconceptions. 

As for Panama, who fought bravely against Belgium, kettled them and hobbled them with some cynical and wild tackles, the 30C heat in the city once known as Gorky after Maxim, though Sorrento and Capri had similar claims over the writer, should have a greater toll on much older legs. They are a veteran side, a tough side and play with genuinely intimidating muscular athleticism. Any thoughts that they may trial a new approach here have been thoroughly debunked by their veteran defensive midfielder Gabriel Gomez.  “We are men, we are aggressive,” he said. “Football is played with aggression, with desire. We are a team that knows how to play and when we have to fight, we fight.”

For all that, they are pretty enlightened technically if not always tactically and can open up a defence with decent movement - at no great pace - and some inspired passing angles. Against Belgium they were unable to commit runners consistently to help out their lone 37-year-old forward and settled for an attritional scrap that frustrated world-class talents such as Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne and made them look pedestrian. It took a terrific strike from Dries Mertens to prise Panama’s vice-grip around their throats early in the second half after a stultifying first 45 minutes. Class will out but England and their supporters will have to be patient.