England have secured top spot in Group L as the Three Lions eventually overcame Panama to round off the World Cup group stages with a win and set up a last 32 clash with Senegal
England spared their blushes to eventually overcome Panama and secure top spot in Group L with a 2-0 victory and set up a round of 32 clash against Senegal.
After a miserable first-half, England finally broke the deadlock when Jude Bellingham steered a volley home from a corner shortly after the hour mark. And it was a case of London buses in New York as Harry Kane doubled the lead just five minutes later and relieved any nerves around the ground after a poor opening 60 minutes.
With England’s place in the knockout stages secured and taking on a Panama team who failed to score in either of their two previous defeats, Tuchel took no risk in the team selection, specifically with Declan Rice.
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The Arsenal midfielder was withdrawn with a knock against Ghana and was one yellow card away from being suspended for the opening knockout game.
Meanwhile, the major talking point in recent days has been Reece James inevitably picking up an injury. The Chelsea captain’s recent seasons have been majorly impacted and his inability to stay fit has become almost a joke.
But with the also permanently crocked Tino Livramento, who obviously got injured before the start of the tournament, the other selection by Tuchel at right-back in his 26-man squad, the German picked Jarell Quansah on the right side of defence.
Despite leaving Trent Alexander-Arnold at home for no real reason, Quansah was named after playing just 15 career matches in that position. Another blow followed as Quansah was ironically forced off injured in the second-half with an ankle problem, only adding to the right-back issues that he wasn’t even supposed to solve in the first place.
Speaking on ITV before the game, Gary Neville slammed Tuchel’s incredibly naïve and baffling squad decision, he fumed: “The one position I think I am pretty qualified to speak on is right back and if you had said to me a couple of months ago that Quansah would be playing right-back for England in a tournament, I would say something has gone badly wrong.
“He’s picked Reece James and Livramento, players who are injury prone. He’s not brought Trent Alexander-Arnold, who obviously is someone with world class quality, for what reasons we can only imagine.
“That is where we are right now, England will win this group and win this game but there is some turbulence in there.
“Djed Spence is the only real option at right-back,” he continued. “Quansah is not an option going into the games further into the tournament, so I think the reasons he has probably done it today are he is thinking ‘look, we can handle Panama, Quansah can play there, and Spence can come in for the 32’.”
And lo and behold, Panama enjoyed plenty of success down England’s right flank. Jordan Pickford was called to make two smart stops in the first-half to deny Panama taking a shock lead from openings on that wing.
Unlike Ghana, Panama actually came to play with them knowing they were heading home regardless of the result at the end of the night. England dominated the ball, but it was the Central American outfit that had the better sights of goal.
England were unable to break the deadlock in the first half and frustration built around the ground. Speaking at the break, Alan Shearer gave a damning verdict: “It was similar to Ghana. It was similar under Gareth Southgate.
“We were all looking after the second half with Croatia and they came at us and went to press us and that left gaps and England were able to punish that. But when a team sits and England have to be patient and produce a piece of magic or a killer pass, they have not been able to find a way. Absolutely we have seen this before.”
But the second half started off no better, a lack of ideas and quality on the ball was rife throughout the side, Marcus Rashford was consistently guilty of giving the ball away while Manchester City’s soon-to-be £116million signing Elliot Anderson endured one of his worst performances as the sole defensive midfielder.
Harry Kane finally got his sight of goal shortly before the hour mark when he broke clear but could only fire a shot too close to Orlando Mosquera.
However, moments later England did eventually find the breakthrough on the hour mark when Bellingham turned home a volley from a corner. The Real Madrid star held off his man and wrapped his foot around the ball as it dropped towards the six-yard box, giving England the absolute relief they were after.
As it looked like it could have been, once England got ahead, the second goal soon followed as Kane guided a textbook header back across the goal, holding off his marker and nodding home Bellingham’s cross.
Kane’s goal was his third in three games at this year’s tournament and his 11th at World Cups, a goal which saw him surpass Gary Lineker’s previous record. Jordan Henderson was also given a charity runout for the final five minutes as he became the first England player to play at four World Cups and seven major tournaments.
England will play Senegal in the round of 32. If the Three Lions can overcome the AFCON finalists (it’s too much of a minefield to call them winners or runners-up), they will face the winner of Mexico or Ecuador.
The quarter of the draw England find themselves in also includes Brazil, while Argentina could be a potential semi-final opponent. Oh, and tonight’s results mean that Scotland are officially out of their first World Cup since 1998 in the group stage.