SIXY FOOTBALL
Start spreading the news... with Kane anything is possible because he’s ruthless, determined and brilliant
GET your World Cup wallchart ready, start plotting the route – and enjoy getting wonderfully and unashamedly carried away.
Yes, we know it was only Panama, who were, quite frankly, an embarrassment.
They were a pub team, the Dog and Duck trying to kick England off the pitch.
And if there is one thing we are really good at, it’s getting ahead of ourselves.
But England did exactly what they had to do – and absolutely destroyed the men from Central America.
Harry Kane hit a hat-trick to become the World Cup’s fivegoal leading scorer, while this was England’s biggestever win in a major tournament as they clinched their place in the last 16.
It feels that with Kane anything is possible. In this form, the England captain is unstoppable – ruthless, determined and brilliant.
His morale-boosting treble in such an important win was also something to savour as one of England’s great World Cup memories, a slice of history to give us all hope.
The 4,000 Three Lions fans in the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium made a marvellous noise.
They loved every minute and you could feel the warm glow coming from back home radiate all the way to Russia.
Suddenly, England are playing with a smile on their faces, the fans are having a party.
The connection between players and supporters, lost in the last two tournaments, is rapidly being restored.
Gareth Southgate insisted that he enjoyed the Tunisia win more, and those are the high standards he sets himself.
That was partly because England were quite sloppy in the way they started, an early John Stones mistake nearly letting in Panama. But as soon as England took an eighth-minute lead, you felt it would be plain sailing.
Panama’s defenders were so busy grappling and trying to wrestle Harry Maguire and Kane to the ground that they left Stones unmarked to head home his first international goal.
After 22 minutes, it was two. Jesse Lingard had a terrific game, his runs and movement causing major problems. Now Roman Torres and Fidel Escobar combined to pull him down in the box. Up stepped Kane to smash home the penalty in true Alan Shearer-style.
Lingard did even better soon after. The Manchester United forward took a return pass from Raheem Sterling before curling the ball into the top corner.
England made it four after 40 minutes from a perfect free-kick routine,
Jordan Henderson whipped in a lovely ball and Kane headed across for Sterling. He was denied at pointblank range but Stones headed in the rebound.
Kane got another goal in first-half injury time when Anibal Godoy dragged him to the ground. Egyptian referee Ghead Grisha referred to his VAR colleagues, but there was no escape for Panama as Kane thrashed in his second spot-kick – same place, same power. Panama were in such disarray they held their own team meeting in the centre circle before leaving the pitch at the interval. England eased off after the break, hardly surprising with the temperature over 30 degrees in the searing heat. But everything was going Kane’s way, to such an extent that a shot from Ruben Loftus-Cheek (above) deflected off his heel and into the net to complete his hat-trick.
At that point, England were clear on top of Group G ahead of Belgium.
But they then conceded when 37-year-old substitute Felipe Baloy scored after 78 minutes.
The Belgians reckon finishing second might present an easier passage. But one thing is for sure, Kane will not want to be rested when the two nations meet in Kaliningrad on Thursday.
Not in this form.