Harry faces the dreaded giant! HOW THEY MEASURE UP

The sun’s out, the boys are on form but one thing stands in England’s way... Panama’s tattooed man-mountain

HE BECAME a national hero after scoring a crucial last-minute goal and now carries his country’s World Cup dreams.

No, not Harry Kane, but Roman Torres, the 6ft 3in Panama defender who is on a mission to stop the England captain in his tracks when the two teams meet today.

Sporting wild dreadlocks and a bewildering assortment of tattoos, Torres, 32, escaped Panama’ s gang-plagued slums as a youth and now commands the kind of adulation of which David Beckham would be proud.

At 15 st 8 lb (99 kg ), the fatherof-two is the tournament’ s heaviest player and he has vowed to use all his strength to prevent Kane – no weakling himself at 14st – from again scoring a late winner as he did against Tunisia last Monday.

It was a last-gasp winner by the Panamanian giant in a qualifying match against Costa Rica last October that sent his country to the World Cup finals for the first time.

It triggered celebrations lasting several weeks and Torres’ face beamed from billboards across

‘If we score, we will celebrate as champions’

Panama. A stadium was named after him and a national holiday held in his honour.

The Panamanian man-mountain is not the shy and retiring type.

When a Russian journalist asked at the pre-match press conference about his weight, Torres’ response was to take off his shirt and flash his abdominal muscles and those tattoos, including a large World Cup trophy inked on his right calf.

Torres, who plays in the US for Seattle Sounders, said: ‘Harry Kane is a very good striker in very good form and we will have to be physically and mentally well prepared. We can’t be afraid, we are a team capable of taking on bigger teams.’

In Britain today, an estimated 25 million people will watch the match, making it the biggest TV event since the 2012 Olympics.

Embarrassingly, however, England’s travelling fans are expected to be outnumbered by Panamanians at the game in Nizhny Novgorod, 260 miles east of Moscow.

Around 5,000 Panama fans have tickets for the match but only around 3,000 English are expected.

‘ Where are the England fans?’ asked Luis Huertas, 28, an auditor from Panama City as he enjoyed a drink in Nizhny. ‘Why so few? This is astonishing. Everyone in Panama wanted to come here. If we score just one goal we will celebrate as world champions.’

More than anything else, England’s fans have been put off by Russia’s notorious hooligans, but the tournament so far has been near trouble-free with the Russians proving impeccable hosts.

Andy Cook, 63, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, who has followed England at the World Cup since 1982, is typical of the ‘Grandad’s Army’ who comprise much of the travelling support. ‘The younger lads were scared to come, which is a bit poor really,’ he said. ‘They’ll be kicking themselves because the Russians have been brilliant.’

But if England defeat Panama and qualify from Group G, thousands more supporters are expected to come out for the knockout phase.

In Nizhny Novgorod – an elegant city of golden-domed churches and 19th Century buildings which sits above the confluence of two rivers: the Volga and the Oka – plenty of locals are supporting England.

Nikolay Lobanov, 16, who is going to the game with his father Dmitry, said: ‘The way England play is just so beautiful. I always believe in the English team and I think you will win the World Cup.’