BLV Anh Ngọc: And the stands were singing 'Hey Jude'

It is difficult to fathom how Thomas Tuchel's squad could be so stuck against Panama, which is 30 spots lower in the rankings. With David Beckham and England women's forward Chloe Kelly watching from the VIP section, they needed more than sixty minutes before Jude Bellingham broke the deadlock. Afterwards, they started singing "Hey Jude" by the Beatles in his honor.

That was a set-piece situation England capitalized on fully, during a second half where they played faster and with more determination, yet still couldn't score from open play.

England's number 10 unleashed a tidy left-footed finish in the 62nd minute to open a hard-fought victory for the Three Lions, as he was pushed higher up the pitch compared to the first half. It was his second consecutive goal at this World Cup, his seventh in 51 appearances for England. That shot opened the door to Panama's goal, allowing Harry Kane to make it 2-0 five minutes later. That was Kane's third goal of the tournament. He kept top spot in the group, meaning they will face one of the third-placed teams from Groups I, J, or K in the round of 32, and then in the round of 16 they would meet the winner of Mexico vs. the third place from Group C or E. If England wins that round of 16 match, they could potentially face Brazil in the quarter-finals. But that's a concern for the near future, because right now, England's difficulty against teams that sit deep like this is a problem head coach Thomas Tuchel must solve if he wants to go far.

Earlier, the disappointment was clear on the faces of many England fans when the first 45 minutes ended: their team, despite having 72% possession and taking nine shots (two on target), found no way to penetrate deeper into the area of goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera. Attention was on Kane, but England's early chances came from Marcus Rashford, who played as a ghosting false nine behind Panama's defense. Yet he couldn't do more in the first half, and on the other flank, Bukayo Saka was similarly ineffective—unable to cross, dribble past, or shoot. Notably, the German coach set up his starting lineup to try to finish the match early: only Eliott Anderson had defensive duties, while supporting Kane were Rashford, Morgan Rogers, Bellingham, and Saka. Meanwhile, Nico O'Reilly frequently pushed high on the left flank.

But the team from the canal country held firm. Their fans, packing the stands, kept singing the familiar Latin American chant that Ecuadorians once sang when they achieved a historic upset by beating Germany: "Se si puede" (Yes we can). When the electronic board at MetLife Stadium showed that, in the concurrent match, Croatia had just taken a 1-0 lead over Ghana, meaning Croatia moved to the top of the group and pushed England to second, the English supporters' mood sank. If both concurrent matches ended with the first-half scores, England would face the runner-up of Group K (Colombia or Portugal) and could then meet Spain in the round of 16. That was a nightmare scenario no one wanted. Fortunately, that didn't happen, thanks to Bellingham's finish and Kane's header—Kane had scored a hat-trick against Panama in England's 6-1 win during the 2018 World Cup group stage.

The victory over Panama was England's way of making amends after the goalless draw with Ghana, which dashed any hopes of resting key players in this match. In that game, England could not break through Ghana's net despite a bizarre match where Kane and his teammates fired 19 shots, had 33 touches in Ghana's box, but created only two real chances and had three shots on target. England held more than 70% possession but didn't register their first shot on target until the second half.

The English press wrote that Tuchel's team had gone full throttle in their 4-2 win over Croatia thanks to fatal defensive errors by the opponent, but then suddenly pulled the handbrake to slow themselves down against Ghana. Now, when they had to do everything to correct that mistake, they managed it, but with great difficulty. It all started with Bellingham's priceless goal in the 62nd minute.

Anh Ngoc (TTXVN Correspondent, from MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, USA)

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