Maybe that will calm some of the nerves of England’s fanbase, hoping to see the Three Lions win a World Cup for the first time in 60 years.
Manager Thomas Tuchel had already been hearing the second-guessing of his roster choices after England played to a scoreless draw against Ghana earlier in the week, and the pitchforks were being readied after an admittedly lackluster first half on Saturday against Panama, with plenty still on the line.
But Jude Bellingham, one of England’s best players in the tournament, helped change the narrative a bit with a flick of his leg, and Harry Kane helped seal a 2-0 win four minutes later to close out the group stage on a positive note.
Perhaps fittingly, England’s final match of the group stage played out in a similar fashion as their World Cup opener against Croatia, with the team struggling to get a rhythm going in the first 45 minutes before finally getting it together in the second half.
England was expected to win Group L coming into Saturday’s match, but a sense of concern started to creep in as Croatia, also in its group, jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Ghana and could have pushed the Three Lions down to second, which would have given a tougher path in the knockout stage.
Instead, England came away with a win in the match and the group, setting it up to play one of the third-place group finishers that will advance.
The pursuit of World Cup glory has hit snags over the years.
In 2022, England made it to the quarterfinals, and four years before that, it finished in fourth place.
It’s put plenty of pressure on Tuchel and his squad this year, and that started to manifest in the questions he faced coming into the match, especially after Reece James was injured during the draw with Ghana.
Questions materialized again about his decision to leave players such as Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold off the World Cup squad.
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“It’s a reflex,” Tuchel said. “Things don’t go well and then the guys on the bench are suddenly the ‘winners’ — or the guys at home are the ‘winners’. That’s not it. The game needs to be played how it’s played. [Against Ghana] it played out to be difficult. They made life very difficult for us. We selected a group from the evidence we had. It cannot be that you’re not selected and suddenly you will [be the answer]. This is not how it works.”
During Saturday’s win over Panama, Jarell Quansah took James’ spot at right back.
England is expecting to get him back at some point during the tournament, but coming into the match, Tuchel wasn’t necessarily sure when that would be.
Bellingham broke the scoreless match in the 62nd minute when he found himself in the right spot off the corner.
Battling in front of the net for position, he managed to get a flick of his foot on the ball sent in by Bukayo Saka for England’s first goal.
Bellingham again came through for England, this time setting up Kane for the header in front of the net to make it a two-goal game and all but seal things. The strike made Kane England’s all-time World Cup goal scorer.
