It took England an hour to break Panama’s resistance and, by winning 2-0 in New Jersey, secure first place in Group 12. Thus, the “Three Lions” are preparing for the “32” phase match next Wednesday against one of the best third-place teams.
The English were very bad in the first half, they saw Panama miss the only important chance that Pickford cleared away Jose Rodriguez’s diagonal shot. In the second 45 minutes and within a five-minute period, the personality of Jude Bellingham untied the “Gordian knot”. The Real Madrid ace was the one who opened the scoring in the 62nd minute with an excellent direct execution after a corner by Xhaka and who five minutes later “served” to Kane who headed the ball to make it 2-0.
Referee : Abdulrahman Al Jasim (Qatar)
Yellow cards : Fajardo, Andrade – Cuanza
The compositions of the two teams:
PANAMA (Thomas Christiansen): Mosquera, Cordoba, Escobar, Harvey (88′ Contero), Andrante, Murillo, Gutierrez (88′ Davis), Martinez, J. L. Rodriguez (71′ Londono), Barquenas (71′ Ismael Diaz), T. Rodriguez
ENGLAND (Thomas Tuchel): Pickford, Kona, O’Reilly, Gay, Kwanza (63′ Spence), Anderson (84′ Henderson), Rodgers, Bellingham, Saka (63′ Mandueke), Rashford, Kane (84′ Watkins)
