England v Panama, 24 June 2018

Kick-off: 3.00pm local (1.00pm BST) England v Panama was Match 30 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Referee team: Referee: Ghead Grisha (Egypt) Assistant referee 1: Redouane Achik (Morocco) Assistant referee 2: Waleed Ahmed (Sudan) Fourth official: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti) Reserve AR: Bertrand Brial (New Caledonia) VAR: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) With one group game still to play, this result confirmed that England and Belgium had qualified for the round of 16 while Panama and Tunisia were eliminated. As they had identical records, England headed Belgium at the top of the Group G table by virtue of being shown fewer yellow cards (England 2, Belgium 3). This was the first time that England had scored five goals or more at a World Cup finals game. The last time they scored four was in the 1966 Final against West Germany. England's previous biggest wins at the World Cup finals had been by 3-0 margins (versus Denmark in 2002 and against Paraguay and Poland in 1986). This was only the fifth time that a team had scored five goals or more in the first-half of a World Cup finals game; most recently by Germany in the 2014 semi-final against Brazil. Having lost 3-0 to Belgium in their first game, Los Canaleros (the Canal Men) became the first nation to lose by three or more goals in both of their opening two games in their debut at the World Cup finals since Greece in 1994. They lost 4-0 to Bulgaria and Argentina. Harry Kane's hat-trick was the third by an England player at the World Cup finals; also Geoff Hurst versus West Germany in 1966 and Gary Lineker against Poland in 1986. Harry Kane became the second player to score in both of England's opening two games at a World Cup finals; also Ron Flowers versus Hungary and Argentina in 1962 (both penalties). Harry Kane became the fifth player to score two goals in his first two World Cup finals appearances and the first since Poland's Grzegorz Lato in 1974. John Stones became the second Manchester City player to score for England at the World Cup finals; also Trevor Francis versus Czechoslavakia and Kuwait in 1982. The Three Lions were now unbeaten in their last 12 international games (won nine). This was the first meeting between England and Panama. While Panama became the 78th nation to reach the World Cup finals, only Germany, Brazil, Italy and Argentina had played more games at the finals than England (63). Panama became the 38th different nation that England had faced at the World Cup finals. Felipe Baloy's goal was Panama's first goal at the World Cup finals. At 37 years and 120 days, he became the fourth oldest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup finals. England had now won their opening two games at a World Cup finals for a third time; also 1982 and 2006. Panama’s Colombian-born coach Hernán Darío Gómez was in charge of the Colombia team that faced Glenn Hoddle’s England at the 1998 World Cup finals. England won the Group G game in Lens (2-0) with goals in the opening thirty minutes from Darren Anderton and David Beckham.