England put Panama to the sword

England have battered Panama 6-1 at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium to secure their place in the round of 16 at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Click here to re-live The Roar’s live blog.

England were just far too good from the start until the end, and the first half produced five English goals to prove that.

John Stones got things underway with a headed goal after Kieran Trippier put in the perfect ball.

Panama shot themselves in the foot when they gave away a penalty, which Harry Kane put away with ease.

Jesse Lingard continued the form that he showed with Manchester United when he linked up with Raheem Sterling to fire one into the top right corner from outside the box.

England produced what was probably the team goal of the tournament on another Trippier set-piece. Stones was on the end of all the good work to get his second.

Panama made it even worse for themselves just before half time when they conceded another penalty, and with Kane in the form he is in, he wasn’t going to miss.

The scary thing was that was only the first half for Panama, but they did manage to put in a better showing come the second.

Kane still managed to get his hat-trick despite Panama being more solid in defence, although it was a tad lucky as it took a massive deflection to go in.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek launched a shot from outside the box, but it hit Kane and found the back of the net, which led to his first hat-trick for England.

Despite it being a dark day for Panama, there was a moment of happiness for the World Cup finals debutants.

Felipe Baloy was on the end of a superb ball in from Ricardo Avila to get his nations first goal at the World Cup finals, and you could see what it meant to them.

But, come the end, it was England’s day. It will see them face Belgium in their final group stage game to see who finishes on the top of their respective group.

There’s no denying Gareth Southgate’s men will want to finish on top, so nothing will be left in the tank.

What the efforts of the English thus far lead to, only time will tell, but it has been a big turnaround under Southgate.

They seem to have a system and a set team, something they haven’t had in the past.