'Magnificent' - Former captain Alan Shearer hails England's Panama display

Gareth Southgate's men completely dominated the first half and raced into a 5-0 lead thanks to a brace each from Harry Kane and John Stones, while Jesse Lingard also found the net with a stunning effort into the top corner.

Kane completed his hat-trick when a shot from Ruben Loftus-Cheek deflected in off the Tottenham striker, taking him clear at the top of the competition's scoring charts on five, before Felipe Baloy scored a consolation for Panama.

England have now qualified for the knockout stages alongside Belgium, who they face on Thursday night to determine the group winners.

Shearer said on BBC One: "A job very well done. We knew it would slow down in the second half, they could not keep that pace up. They looked after themselves, protected themselves in that second half, and were well within their rights to do that.

"A magnificent day, a magnificent performance. Every single one of them can go away and be very proud of it. The only down side was Raheem Sterling never got a goal, that would have been the perfect day, but everything was superb."

England 6-1 Panama: Opta facts

• England have won both of their opening two group stage games at a World Cup tournament for the third time, also doing so in 1982 and 2006.
• This was England’s biggest ever win in a major tournament match (World Cup and European Championships).
• This was only the fifth occasion a side had scored five goals before half-time in a World Cup match, and the first since Germany did so against Brazil in the 2014 semi-final.
• England scored as many goals in this match as they had in their previous seven World Cup matches combined (6).
• Only in 1966 (11) have England scored more goals in a single World Cup tournament than they have in 2018 (8, same as 1954 and 1990).
• Panama have conceded nine goals across their first two World Cup matches. The last time anyone conceded more in their first ever two fixtures was in 1974, with Zaire shipping 11 and Haiti conceding 10.
• Only two players have been older than Panama’s Felipe Baloy (37y 120d) when scoring their first ever World Cup goal – Cameroon’s Roger Milla (38y 25d) in 1990 and Sweden’s Gunnar Gren (37y 236d) in 1958.
• John Stones became the first England defender to score two goals in a single World Cup match.
• Harry Kane is only the third England player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup match, after Geoff Hurst vs Germany in the 1966 final and Gary Lineker vs Poland in 1986.
• England striker Harry Kane is the first player to have scored at least twice in both of his first two ever World Cup appearances since Poland’s Grzegorz Lato in 1974. Lato went on to win the Golden Boot at that tournament.
• England’s Harry Kane is now the leading scorer at the 2018 World Cup with five goals. He’s scored with all five of his shots on target in the tournament.

Fellow BBC pundit Rio Ferdinand believes the future looks bright, saying: "I think we can be pleased. I think this England team is exciting a nation like no other team for probably 20 years. I know you can only beat what's in front of you, but they've still gone and done it.

"There will be players now in this team who were thinking (before) they're not sure of their starting place. After these first two performances, the likes of Lingard, (Kieran) Trippier, (Harry) Maguire, Stones - they'll be sitting there saying 'we are the mainstays of this team now' and that builds confidence."

Kane led from the front again with his treble, and Frank Lampard added on BBC One: "The development of him as a player, a leader - quite rightly captain of the team - he's a world star, everyone knows him, but he just keeps producing. Nothing's a problem for him."

Ferdinand added: "He's such a wonderfully balanced individual. He never gets too excited when things are going well and he never gets too down when things aren't going so well.

"That allows him to have that inner confidence, and he goes in there and produces the goods week in, week out for his club and he's now doing it as captain for his country."

Shearer believes it could be a "life-changing" tournament for Kane if he wins the Golden Boot.

"I said on Monday that for some players this tournament could be life-changing," said Shearer.

"He's come into the tournament as Harry Kane but if he goes away as Harry Kane, World Cup Golden Boot winner, that's life-changing for someone."

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