LIONS’ WORLD CUP OPENERS

1950: England 2 Chile 0 (Rio)

It was the fourth World Cup and England’s debut with Stan Mortensen becoming the first Englishman to score in a finals with his 39th-minute opener before Wilf Mannion added the second.

1954: England 4 Belgium 4

(Basel) An amazing match which went to extra time with Ivor Broadis and Nat Lofthouse both scoring twice.

1958: Soviet Union 2 England 2 (Gothenburg)

England trailed 2-0 before Derek Kevan scored and then Tom Finney equalised with a penalty late on.

1962: Hungary 2 England 1

(Rancagua) England’s first defeat in an opening match came despite Wolves legend Ron Flowers levelling the scores with a penalty.

1966: England 0 Uruguay 0 (Wembley)

Frustration for the hosts in front of over 87,000 fans at Wembley but for England it ended up pretty well!

1970: England 1 Romania 0 (Guadalajara)

Geoff Hurst carried on where he had left off four years earlier by scoring the only goal.

1982: England 3 France 1 (Bilbao)

A dream start for England with Bryan Robson’s goal after just 27 seconds before his second restored England’s lead ahead of Paul Mariner scoring the third.

1986: Portugal 1 England 0 (Monterrey)

Bobby Robson’s side made the worst possible start as Carlos Manuel pounced to score with 15 minutes left.

1990: England 1 Republic of Ireland 1 (Cagliari)

Gary Lineker scored in the ninth minute but Jack Charlton’s Ireland hit back through Kevin Sheedy.

1998: England 2 Tunisia 0 (Marseille)

Alan Shearer eased England concerns by breaking the deadlock three minutes before the break but they had to wait until the 89th minute for Paul Scholes to seal the win.

2002: England 1 Sweden 1 (Saitama)

Sol Campbell put England ahead after 24 minutes with a powerful header but Sven Goran Eriksson’s ‘home nation’ equalised through Niclas Alexandersson.

2006: England 1 Paraguay 0 (Frankfurt)

England made an unconvincing opening to their campaign even though they went in front after just three minutes when, from David Beckham’s free-kick, Carlos Gamarra scored an own goal.

2010: England 1 USA 1 (Rustenburg)

Steven Gerrard scored in the fourth minute but Rob Green’s awful error allowed Clint Dempsey to level.

2014: England 1 Italy 2 (Manaus)

Behind in the 35th minute to Claudio Marchisio’s goal, Daniel Sturridge equalised two minutes later before Mario Balotelli won it.

2018: Tunisia 1 England 2 (Volgograd)

Harry Kane struck twice but he left it late with the winner in stoppage time.