Full-time England 6-1 Panama A hat-trick for Kane, two for Stones and a screamer from Lingard give England their record victory in tournament football. They led 5-0 at half-time and then squeezed the game, harboured their reserves and celebrate a famous victory.
Perhaps we should start with a note of caution. The opposition will not always be this obliging and nobody, surely, can expect Harry Kane to keep scoring so prodigiously throughout the rest of the World Cup. Maybe England have peaked too soon. And no doubt the most overheard line over the next 24 hours will be that, yes, it was only Panama. Stay calm, it was only Panama.
All the same, it was difficult to come away from the latest win for Gareth Southgate’s increasingly convincing side without the overwhelming feeling that it has been a long time since an England team have played this freely. It was their biggest World Cup victory – thoroughly eclipsing the 3-0 against Denmark in 2006 – and at half-time, no kidding, there were people in the pressbox flicking through the history books to find out how many more goals were needed to establish the biggest ever win in World Cup history.
England were 5-0 ahead at that time courtesy of two penalties from Kane, supplemented by two headed goals from John Stones and a beauty from Jesse Lingard. Kane’s hat-trick followed in the 63rd minute and, after that, it came as a jolt that the only other goal came off a Panamanian foot. Hungary’s 10-1 win against El Salvador in 1982 will have to wait for another day. Thursday, perhaps, when Belgium are the opposition, to establish which team wins Group G.
Already, though, it is mission accomplished as far as qualification is concerned and, on this evidence, it is no exaggeration to say England should not fear anybody. Kane is now the leading scorer in the tournament and Gary Lineker is the only player, though all the ages, who has managed more than his five goals. Yet the acclaim here should not just apply to Kane when Stones has been so effective in either penalty area, when Kieran Tripper’s supply line has been so instrumental and Jesse Lingard is emerging as a genuine category-A player.
England had never before scored five first-half goals and it is only the third time in the history of this team, our of 24 attempts, when they have begun any major tournament by winning back-to-back matches, emulating the World Cups of 1982 and 2006. It is still only two games but, slowly but surely, something important is happening. England are becoming the team their supporters want them to be. And it is great fun.
Source: The Guardian
