3 reasons why England deserved to beat Panama 6-1

England knocked it out of the park against Panama and drowned them in a pool of goals. The initial attacking surge that caught Tunisia napping was present in its truest form once again as the Englishmen ran riot at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.

John Stones headed home in the 8th minute to put England ahead after being left unmarked inside the area. Harry Kane bagged 3 goals- 2 from the penalty spot and one, as inadvertent a goal as any he is likely to claim in his career. Jesse Lingard scored an absolute peach from outside the area.

Stones also managed to get another one in, again from a deadly set-piece routine that fell to him after Sterling's header from point-blank range was parried by Penedo.

Panama got a consolation goal that took their fans on a transport of delight as Baloy struck home from an Avila.

Let's not waste more time and delve right into the 3 reasons why England deserved to win against Panama in the manner they did:

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#3 More direction about their long ball play

Henderson's distribution was on point once again

If you're acquainted with the hopeless 'lumping the ball forward and hoping' technique that the England national team had been infamous for, you would have noticed a welcome change in the proceedings.

Gareth Southgate's men don't just pump long balls to a target man. The likes of Kyle Walker and Jordan Henderson are always probing to pick out runners and they were able to play some lovely dinked balls that caused chaos in the Panama defence.

In fact, Jesse Lingard won England's first penalty after he was played into the box by Walker with a lovely dinked ball. Harry Kane belaboured the ball into the top right corner and made sure Lingard's efforts counted.

Even otherwise, Sterling, Trippier and Lingard were stirring their stumps and getting on the end of some delightful diagonals served deep into the final third by their rollicking midfielders.

#2 Jesse Lingard's mobility

Lingard sends home a beauty

Jesse Lingard was getting mowed down on a regular basis from the get-go. He was getting jacked and hacked to the ground but the English midfielder never gave up and kept bustling through the lines, causing the Panama defence to go confused for long spells.

He upended their entire defence with a brilliant passing move which he himself started and finished off. After drifting inwards from the left flank, and battling to keep the ball, he played a lovely give-and-go with Raheem Sterling before darting into space and sending home a curler that was reminiscent of the beautiful goals that he scored for Manchester United.

To say that Lingard is living up to the hype would only be fair and he made sure that the absence of Dele Alli was not felt.

#1 Dominance in set-pieces

Stones heads home his second of the evening

John Stones headed home in the 8th minute to take England's set-piece conversion tally to 3. That was 3 in 3, at the time. Shortly afterwards, Harry Kane banged one in from the spot and the striker's finish oozed with confidence.

But the real surprise was yet to come. After Lingard put the result beyond doubt, England went on to pull off a sophisticated freekick routine that paid dividends. Trippier took the freekick short to Henderson who flicked it into the box. Hendo's ball was met at the right side of the post by Kane and he headed it across goal.

Raheem Sterling should have nodded it home but somehow, Penedo had it covered. However, the Panama goalkeeper could only parry it straight to John Stones who poked it home without causing further complications.

6 of England's 8 goals in this World Cup have come from set-pieces and they really look like a difficult team to negotiate with from the dead ball.