England vs Panama: Team News, Predicted Lineup and What to Expect Tonight
England’s place in the World Cup round of 32 was already confirmed before tonight’s match had even kicked off, with Uruguay’s defeat by Spain earlier on Saturday doing the job for them. That takes some of the tension out of the Group L finale against Panama at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — but not all of it. Thomas Tuchel’s side still have first place to play for, and the manner in which they approach a game against an already-eliminated side will tell us something important about the mindset and condition of this squad heading into the knockout rounds.
Kick-off is at 10pm BST tonight, live on ITV1 and ITVX.
The injury picture
The big news confirmed in Tuchel’s pre-match press conference is that Reece James will not play. The Chelsea right back suffered a hamstring injury during Tuesday’s goalless draw with Ghana and has not trained since. Djed Spence comes in at right back in his place.
Declan Rice is a significant doubt. The Arsenal midfielder missed Thursday’s training session entirely after leaving the Ghana game with strapping on his left calf. Tuchel will make a late call on his fitness, but the signs are not encouraging. If Rice is ruled out, Morgan Rogers is the most likely candidate to step into the midfield alongside Elliot Anderson — an opportunity for the Middlesbrough man to stake his claim on one of the tournament’s bigger stages.
Bukayo Saka, meanwhile, has been carefully managed throughout the group stage due to a persistent Achilles problem. He came off the bench in both the Croatia and Ghana games and could be in line to start tonight against weaker opposition, with Tuchel likely to view this as a chance to get some minutes into his legs ahead of the knockout rounds.
Predicted lineup
With those injury considerations in mind, England’s most likely starting eleven looks something like this:
Pickford; Spence, Konsa, Stones, O’Reilly; Anderson, Rogers/Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Rashford; Kane.
Marcus Rashford should start on the left wing after being limited to a cameo role against Ghana, where he was England’s most dangerous player when he came on. Anthony Gordon has not convinced in either of his starts and the expectation is that Tuchel will make that switch. Eberechi Eze and Ivan Toney are options from the bench if England need a creative spark or a physical presence late on.
What Panama will bring
Panama are already eliminated — their two 1-0 defeats to Ghana and Croatia ending any hope of progression — but that does not mean they will roll over. Thomas Christiansen has built a compact, organised side that has made life difficult for both of its opponents so far. Panama have not scored in either game, and their two most influential midfielders — Adalberto Carrasquilla, out with an adductor injury, and captain Anibal Godoy, who has managed just one minute of action due to lack of match fitness — are unlikely to feature. Jose Fajardo leads the attack, with Orlando Mosquera expected to be kept busy in goal.
Seven of Christiansen’s squad were involved in Panama’s only other World Cup appearance, in Russia in 2018 — the tournament where England beat them 6-1, with Kane scoring a hat-trick. Those survivors include defenders Fidel Escobar and Michael Amir Murillo, as well as Yoel Barcenas and Jose Luis Rodriguez in the forward areas. They will arrive at MetLife with something to prove, even if the bigger picture has already been settled.
What England need to do
The Ghana draw exposed a real problem. England had 78.8% possession in that game — a World Cup record for a team that failed to score — and still could not break down a side ranked 64th in the world. That is the challenge Tuchel has been wrestling with all week, and tonight’s match is a chance to rediscover some of the attacking fluency and directness that made the Croatia win so impressive.
Panama will not sit as deep or as resolutely as Ghana did. They have played with more openness in both of their games and have conceded opportunities — their expected goals against across the group stage is higher than the actual goals they have let in, suggesting England may find more space than they did against Queiroz’s side on Tuesday.
Kane will be particularly motivated. He is chasing Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race after missing a late chance against Ghana that he would normally expect to convert, and a game against an eliminated side with a porous defensive record is the kind of opportunity a striker of his quality will be eager to take.
The bigger picture
Win tonight and England top Group L. That means a round of 32 tie against the runner-up from the crossing group — currently shaping up to be a more favourable draw than the alternative. Finishing second would not end England’s tournament, but it would complicate the route through and remove the sense of momentum that Tuchel will be desperate to carry into the knockout stage.
This should be a comfortable evening. The gulf in quality between the squads is significant, and Panama — without their key midfielders and with nothing left to play for — are unlikely to offer the kind of organised resistance that caused England such problems against Ghana.
The question is not really whether England will win. It is whether they will win convincingly enough to arrive in the round of 32 with their confidence restored and their best players fit.
