Kane hat-trick as England thrash Panama to reach W’Cup knockout

Harry Kane scored a historic hat-trick for England in a 2018 FIFA World Cup Group G encounter against debutants Panama as the Three Lions sealed their place in the round of 16 with a 6-1 victory.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker fired in two penalties, with the third coming via a deflection, to become the third English player to have scored a hat-trick in the history of the tournament.

The game played at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium in Russia saw England leading 5-0 before half time, as a free header by John Stones in the 8th minute opened up the scoring.

Kane doubled the lead on 22 minutes from the spot, Jesse Lingard curled in on 36 minutes, Stones found the back of the net again on 40 minutes, before Kane converted another penalty on the stroke of halftime.

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The rout continued after the break as Kane scored his third of the day via a deflection in the box only two minutes after the hour mark to make it 6-0.

Panama kept on pushing until they successfully pulled one goal back by Felipe Baloy (37yrs 120 days), who became the the fourth-oldest goalscorer in World Cup history behind Roger Miller, Gunnar Gren and Cuauhtémoc Blanco.

This was the first time England had scored four goals in a World Cup match since the 1966 final against Germany.

Panama, already beaten by Belgium in their opening game, have crashed out of the competition, having one last game to play – against Tunisia, who are also out.

England will battle Belgium in the final group game that would decide which of the two teams emerge as group winners.

 

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