Didn‘t they make our lionhearts ROAR!
20 million jubilant TV viewers see England notch up record World Cup haul — and dare to dream of glory
AFTER decades of World Cup disappointment, England fans were starting to believe last night as bookmakers slashed the odds of the Three Lions bringing home the trophy.
Gareth Southgate’s side cruised into the next round with a record-breaking 6-1 victory over minnows Panama after a footballing masterclass in Nizhny Novgorod.
Bookies immediately cut England’s odds of lifting the Jules Rimet trophy to just 9/1, while star striker Harry Kane is a 6/4 favourite to win the Golden Boot after his hat-trick took his tournament total to five.
Panama manager Hernan Gomez said: ‘England is totally spectacular – a beautiful team.’
And at 5-0 down at halftime, Gomez added: ‘I told the team we needed to avoid a catastrophe. We were feeling rather frightened.’
It is England’s biggest- ever win in a World Cup finals match, and the first time they have scored more than three goals at the tournament since the 4-2 final win over West Germany in 1966.
The TV audience in Britain was estimated at 20 million, while 2,500 England fans celebrated in the Nizhny Novgorod stadium. Prince William, on a five- day tour of the Middle East, managed to avoid hearing the scoreline while on official duties, before watching a replay of the match with Prince Hussein of Jordan in his Amman palace.
Fans in Britain are expected to spend a staggering £209 million on alcohol watching the first round of the tournament. A further £128 million is set to be spent in pubs and cafes – despite 86 per cent of the public planning to watch the big clash at home.
The National Grid said electricity demand jumped by 400 megawatts at halftime yesterday – the equivalent to 160,000 kettles boiling.
The England supporters at the ground enjoyed their afternoon in the sun and repeatedly sang ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘ Football’s coming home’ as they watched Kane (three goals, including two penalties), John Stones (two) and Jesse Lingard score.
The 5,000 Panama supporters responded with the hopeful refrain at halftime of ‘6-5 – we’re going to win 6-5!’
England captain Kane said: ‘I am extremely proud of the players.
‘We played with discipline and even had fun out there – we knew it was going Catching up: Prince William, who missed the game because of royal duties, watches a replay with Prince Hussein of Jordan in Amman to be an aggressive game. You can’t fault Panama for that.
‘Our discipline was good and we didn’t get involved in anything silly.’
He added: ‘We’re not getting too ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to keep it going but, yes, you have to believe. If you want to achieve anything in life you have to believe. We’ve got to stick together, stick to our game plan.’ The Panama fans finally had something to celebrate late in the second half when veteran Felipe Baloy made history by scoring his country’s first World Cup finals goal.
At the final whistle, the England players – joined by manager Southgate – went over to their fans and applauded them before leaving the pitch.
Southgate praised his players for being ‘ruthless in front of goal’, adding: ‘I know there were many people at home watching on a Sunday afternoon. It’s lovely that we can give them goals to celebrate.’ Fans at the game spoke of their pride at the England performance despite playing in scorching temperatures in Russia.
Restaurant worker Ben Liversage, 41, from Lowestoft, said: ‘I was hit by a Russian hooligan in Marseilles at the Euros. I was determined that was not going to put me off. England were brilliant and it was a very proud day.’
BA cabin steward John Carpmail, 35, added: ‘At the previous recent World Cups we were the saddest lions in the world. After this we should feel invincible.’
England play their next game against Belgium in Kaliningrad on Thursday.
GARY Lineker has been attacked over his swearing again – after a foul-mouthed twitter comment about Germany’s lastgasp win over Sweden.
Only days after a similar tweet angered parents, he tweeted: ‘Football is a simple game, 22 men chase the ball for 82 minutes and the Germans get a player sent off so 21 men chase the ball for 13 minutes and at the end the Germans somehow f****** win.’ Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan replied: ‘Have you got tourette’s?’ A FORGETFUL football fan travelled 2,000 miles to England’s World Cup game against Panama yesterday... before realising he had left his match ticket at home. Bungling Douglas Moreton, a television worker from Bristol, had reached the city of Nizhny Novgorod before he realised he would not be able to get into the 4 ,000-capacity ground because his ticket had been left in a drawer.