Best Bet: England’s midfield runners to pose Panama problems

While it may have taken an injury time winner from Harry Kane, and indeed two set piece goals from the England captain to defeat Tunisia last Monday, the early signs from Gareth Southgate’s men were encouraging.

The Three Lions came out of the traps at a ferocious pace and created numerous opportunities before Nabil Maaloul’s side eventually weathered the storm. Indeed, England could have been three or four goals to the good by the time their opponents equalised from the spot, and they will look to put in a similar first half performance against more modest opposition in Panama.

The World Cup debutants proved that they could compete with Belgium in their opening 45 minutes, but in truth it was a very lacklustre first half display from Roberto Martinez’s men. We’re unlikely to see the same from this England side, who know that a victory would see them through with a game to spare and will want to wrap three points up as early as possible.

One man that could easily have scored last week was Jesse Lingard, whose intelligent runs from deep caused Tunisia all sorts of problems last time out. The Manchester United man could have had a first half hat-trick to his name and while the quality of his finishing was found wanting, failing to score from four attempts, if the 25-year-old can pick up similar goalscoring positions this afternoon then he could be key to victory here.

While prices between 1.50 and 1.60 in the main still represent decent value on that man Kane adding to his tally, you can double that on Lingard to open his World Cup account, and odds of 3.15 on the midfielder to score at any time from Marathon Bet is our value tip in the early kick-off.