Kane scored a hat-trick. John Stones scored twice from corners. Jesse Lingard hit one from twenty-five yards that still circulates on social media. England beat Panama 6-1 in Nizhny Novgorod on June 24, 2018 and Panama conceded eleven goals across three group games and went home without winning once.
The same nation qualified for 2026 by finishing top of their CONCACAF group without conceding across four games.
THE 2018 CONTEXT
Panama had never been to a World Cup before 2018. The qualification was the whole story. The actual games were almost secondary to the fact of being there, which showed in the results. Lost to Belgium 3-0. Lost to England 6-1. Drew with Tunisia 2-2 when Tunisia had already qualified anyway. Eleven conceded across three games. Two scored.
The 6-1 happened because Panama had not done this before and everything that comes with doing it for the first time arrived at once. The defensive shape broke down under sustained pressure. Individual mistakes compounded. Nobody in that squad had stood in a World Cup group stage with everything moving at that speed and known how to hold the organisation together. By the time they worked it out the group was over.
Before June 27 you will want the full picture on all three opponents: the Croatia guide covering the 2018 semi-final and what Dalic has built for Dallas and the Ghana guide with everything on Kudus and the Boston game are both worth reading alongside this one.
CHRISTIANSEN
He played as a striker across Germany and Spain, managed in Cyprus, Greece, Saudi Arabia and several other countries before Panama came up. Outside Central America the name barely registers. Four years ago he walked into a job most people outside the region had not noticed and started building something with the specific aim of not repeating what happened in Russia.
Four games in the CONCACAF qualifying second round. No goals conceded. Finished top. That defensive record is not luck. It is a specific way of organising a team that Christiansen has been embedding for four years.
Panama under him play to what they actually have rather than what they wish they had. They are not technically superior to most of the teams they face. They are compact, physical, disciplined, and very difficult to score against when the shape is held. The 2018 Panama had none of that. The 2026 Panama was built specifically around it.
in qualifying
group finish
appearance
THE PLAYERS
Carrasquilla is the name most England supporters will not know but the one who makes Panama a functioning football team rather than just a defensive block. He finds small spaces in midfield, plays quickly when he receives, and when Panama win the ball he is usually the first one it goes through. Not a prolific scorer, not an obvious name, the player whose absence would change what Panama can do going forward more than any other.
Murillo at Nottingham Forest is the one Premier League audiences will recognise. Physical centre-back who has spent the season dealing with the pressing game England play every other week. He understands what Tuchel’s side does because Forest have faced teams doing it for a year. He is in the defensive backline that conceded nothing in qualifying.
Waterman covers ground in the midfield alongside Carrasquilla. Davis at Millwall. Penedo the veteran goalkeeper who has been there for years. Fajardo up front. Not a player who scores often internationally but capable of the moment that changes a game if England switch off.
WHY THE 6-1 IS NOT COMING AGAIN
The corners that produced both of Stones’ goals worked because Panama’s defensive organisation at set pieces had never been tested at World Cup level. The space Lingard found for his long-range strike existed because Panama kept losing their shape under pressure. The hat-trick came because Kane was given time and space that no side with a functional defensive structure would have allowed.
Panama in 2026 defend with a low block. They sit narrow, protect the central lanes, and give England the wide areas because they have decided they can live with England having the ball wide. The transitions are quick when they win it. Getting Carrasquilla on the ball fast and creating before the shape reorganises. Set pieces are real in both directions.
England will have the ball for long periods on June 27. Panama will let them. The goals are not coming from pace and transition in behind a high defensive line because the high defensive line will not be there. Patience, movement, corners and crosses. Kane in the air, Bellingham arriving late. The same route that worked against every deep block England faced in the Premier League this season.
NEW JERSEY, JUNE 27
MetLife Stadium. The same ground where the final is on July 19. 82,000 people. Ten o’clock at night. ITV1.
England’s last group game. By then they will know what they need. Panama will know what they need too. Christiansen will have had six days after the Croatia game to prepare a team that qualified without conceding for a game against England who beat the 2018 version 6-1.
He is not trying to stop that. He is trying to stop this England, in this system, with this specific attacking threat. He has been doing this job for four years and the qualifying record suggests he knows how.
England win. It does not look like 2018.
For all six Group L fixtures, kick-off times, TV channels and how England qualify, the complete Group L guide has everything, and every way to watch England’s games free in the UK is covered in the streaming guide.