England vs Panama
Venue: Nizhny Novgorod Stadium
Kick off: 1:00pm
England can secure a place in the knockout stages of the World Cup when they take on Panama in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia this afternoon.
Panama, who are ranked 55th in the FIFA world rankings, lost their opening game 3-0 to Belgium, but Gareth Southgate is not taking the clash lightly.
“We’ve seen already the difficulty big countries in terms of rankings have had in breaking down lower-ranked teams,” Southgate said. “That’s been a theme right the way throughout.
“There’s no way there’s any complacency in the way we’ve prepared for the game. The situation in the group is obviously a healthy one for us, but we’ve got to focus on our performance.
“We want to show people an England team can play in a different way. We’ve got technically good players, we want them to get on the ball and express themselves and really attack the game like we did the other night.”
Meanwhile, Panama coach Hernan Gomez insists his side’s game against England will be their hardest of the tournament.
“Against England, we could get the same score [as against Belgium] or even worse,” he said. “This is our hardest match by far.”