England punches ticket
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia With the country’s most onesided World Cup victory, England advanced to the last 16 with a game by spare.
Harry Kane scored a hat trick in Sunday’s 6-1 rout of Panama, giving England its biggest victory margin at the World Cup in its highestscoring game since 1966.
That previous high-scoring affair turned out well, too, with England beating Germany 4-2 to win its only World Cup title.
Four years ago, England failed to win a match at the World Cup and was eliminated in the group stage.
COLOMBIA 2, POLAND 1
KAZAN, Russia — Radamel Falcao’s first World Cup goal led Colombia to a 3-0 victory over Poland on Sunday and kept the team in the running for a spot in the knockout round.
Falcao had been expected to lead the team at the last World Cup in Brazil, but he injured his knee ahead of the tournament and missed Colombia’s run to the quarterfinals.
Healthy again, the Monaco striker scored with the outside of his foot in the 70th minute after a superb pass from playmaker Juan Quintero in the back of the defence.
Poland, which has two losses, was eliminated.
JAPAN 2, SENEGAL 2
YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Keisuke Honda sat on the bench for 72 minutes, knowing a goal would make him the first Japanese player to score at three World Cups.
Six minutes later, it was a done deal.
The former AC Milan forward scored in the 78th minute, knocking the ball past two defenders standing on the goal line, to give Japan a 2-2 draw with Senegal on Sunday at the World Cup.
GERMANY 2, SWEDEN 1
SOCHI, Russia — The desperate world champions from Germany were seconds from losing control of their World Cup fate when Toni Kroos whispered to Marco Reus just outside Sweden’s penalty area.
With the score tied in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Kroos seemed to remind Reus of a trick play from training that will live in World Cup lore.
The Germans, down to 10 men after Jerome Boateng was given a second yellow card, rallied for a 2-1 victory Saturday and their title defence was suddenly revived.
BELGIUM 5, TUNISIA 2
MOSCOW — Belgium seems to be getting better and better — maybe even the best yet at the World Cup.
It’s still early, but a hugely talented Belgian squad made a big statement on Saturday in its 5-2 rout of Tunisia. No team has scored more goals than Belgium’s eight, and only Cristiano Ronaldo can match Romelu Lukaku’s tally of four.
Belgium has yet to face South American or European opposition, however, and playing England on Thursday should decide who advances to the round of 16 as the winner of Group H.
MEXICO 2, SOUTH KOREA 1
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Carlos Vela and Javier Hernandez scored a goal each to move Mexico closer to a spot in the round of 16 by beating South Korea 2-1 Saturday at the World Cup.
Mexico, which upset defending champion Germany in its opening match, took the lead when Vela converted from the penalty spot in the 26th minute. The Mexicans were awarded the penalty after Jang Hyun-soo handled the ball while trying to stop a cross from Andres Guardado.