England is familiar with losing to underdogs, having been eliminated by Iceland in the 2016 European Championship.
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This England camp has looked a relaxed one off the pitch and Gareth Southgate’s players have brought that to the pitch.
Panama were clearly out of their depth against England, but they didn’t help themselves with an overly aggressive approach.
Harry Kane now has a permanent souvenir from the World Cup.
“This World Cup really doesn’t give you any time to breathe”.
Panama, for its part, has played the role of a team happy to be here.
Lingard made it 3-0 in the 36th minute with a lovely strike from just outside the area before Stones nodded in his second and England’s fourth after a cleverly worked free-kick routine.
“It should have been worse”, he said.
England and Panama have a 3:00 pm kick-off (1200 GMT) in Nizhny Novgorod meaning players could struggle in temperatures topping 30°C. If both teams end up with the same amount of Fair Play points, it will go to a simple draw. As FIFA explains, you lose a point for a yellow card, lose three points for an indirect red card (two yellows), a direct red card is minus-four points, and a yellow and direct red is minus-five.
The resulting 10-man team was able to equalise after Shinji Kagawa scored a penalty but were unable to keep out a late goal by Yuya Osako in the 73rd minute. “If we can make all the other African nations proud, that is twice as glorious”, Mbaye Niang, who scored the second decisive goal for the Senegalese, said. Japan will next face Poland in Volgograd on Thursday while Senegal faces Colombia in Samara. They’ll have to watch for counter attacks, and especially where Sadio Mane is at all times, or if there’s a Senegali player coming off the bench to enter the match at an opportune moment. If they want to qualify from first place – this needs to be a big win.
They now have the chance to turn things around against Poland, who also lost their first match against an impressive Senegal side who could also provide a stumbling block for Colombia next week.
Manuel: Two teams who surprised with their matchday 1 wins against Colombia and Polonia and who might be shaping up to be surprise packages in this tournament.
“Japan are a fine team that knows how to play and it’s also an aggressive team”.
Authorities in Colombia have said they are investigating a death threat made against Sanchez on social media.
Radamel Falcao was a notable absentee from the 2014 World Cup when James Rodriguez’s six-goal haul carried Colombia to a historic quarter-final finish.
Here’s all the action from today’s other two matches.
“It will be like a final”, he said.
Like Falcao, Poland’s top striker Lewandowski arrived in Russian Federation with a point to prove following his mediocre display at the 2016 Euros.
Senegal are not unduly anxious about taking on Japan in Sunday’s Group H clash despite the Asians possessing plenty of technical quality across the pitch, the African team’s coach Aliou Cisse said on Saturday.
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“There will be certainly be changes, it is not very likely that we will play with Colombia with the same players”, Malowiejski said.
