When it comes to England and major tournaments, it's easy for headlines to go a lot of pressure-filled, negative places. The Three Lions have not won a World Cup since ’66. Golden generations in the early 2000s failed to perform. More recently, they suffered embarrassment in the Euros two years ago, crashing out of the tournament after a loss to minnows Iceland.
England's looking to potentially book its place in the next round of the World Cup with a victory over Panama. A last-minute winner from Harry Kane gifted the Three Lions three points, but the team from that match will be slightly different for this match.
How do we know this? We have an inside source from the England camp.
We wish.
The team lineup was leaked by England assistant Steve Holland, who had a team with all the names on it that could potentially start against Panama.
Monday’s match against Tunisia was England’s best performance at a major international tournament for close to a decade. After trying and failing and trying even more desperately and then failing even more stupendously than ever before, the Three Lions finally have an opening game in which they can take great pride.
No event escalates individuals to the status of national hero or global villain as dramatically as the World Cup. The idolatry that follows success and the stigma that follows failure are woven into the fabric of history, and the repercussions will typically follow footballers for the rest of their lives. Daily, we’ll take a look at who played the role of hero and who played the role of villain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Day five saw two heavyweights, Belgium and England, secure victories but not without some nervy moments. Twitter was on call for reactions to all of the day's action.
This definitely wasn't the most exciting game of the tournament, and there wasn't much flow to the game. The internet took note of that.
When people start tweeting about the Sweden vs South Korea game pic.twitter.com/LEB2bUp7KM
There's a reason he's wearing the captain's armband. The Harry Kane goal in stoppage time could be looked back on as the turning point for England in this World Cup. Plagued by a recent history of underperforming on the sport's biggest stage, it looked like England was destined for a disappointing draw against Tunisia.
After a second half played almost entirely in the Tunisia half, Kane broke a 1-1 deadlock in stoppage time with a back post header off a corner.
The matchups on day 5 of the 2018 World Cup may not get you excited but with the way games have gone at this World, it may be wise to not write off the "cupcakes" on the schedule. Tunisia and Panama will face off against England and Belgium to kick off Group G action. Wiil England do Enlgish things? Will Belgium explode out of the gates?
Sweden and Republic of Korea will also look to lock up some inmportant points in Group F after Germany's loss to Mexico.