Tunisia 1-2 England: Harry Kane to the rescue! Captain scores dramatic injury-time winner to get Gareth Southgate's men up and running in Russia
- England started the game brightly with Jesse Lingard and Raheem Sterling missing glorious chances
- But it didn't take too long to open the scoring as captain Harry Kane headed home after just 11 minutes
- Kyle Walker then got in a tangle with Fakhreddine Ben Youssef and a penalty was awarded to Tunisia
- Ferjan Sassi then stepped up and slotted it to the right of Jordan Pickford, who got his fingertips to it
- England piled the pressure on with some brilliant opportunities for Lingard before half time, but to no avail
- It was left to Kane, this time in injury time, to head home from close range and take the spoils for England
- AS IT HAPPENED: Relive all the action with Sportsmail's minute-by-minute coverage of the Group G clash
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- READ: Gareth Southgate took the England manager's job with every intention of ripping up the playbook
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Soft penalty. Tick. Raheem Sterling missed sitter. Tick. Underwhelming opening-game scoreline, plenty of work to do now, a frustrated nation watching from home. Tick, tick and bloody tick.
So it was shaping up as another typical World Cup opener for England. And then Harry Kane scored. He scored in injury time, his second of the game.
The cynical will say they were two tap-ins: a header and a close-range finish, six-yard box interventions from corners. But let’s put that into perspective. England last scored two in any finals game in 2006 against Sweden. And an England player last scored twice at a World Cup 28 years ago. Gary Lineker, against Cameroon, in 1990. England did quite well in 1990, too. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Harry Kane scored twice for England, including an injury-time winner, to fire them a 2-1 victory over Tunisia in Volgograd
Captain Kane was on hand to turn home England's opener after John Stones' bullet header was clawed away by the keeper
Kane wheels away to the corner as his team-mates chase after him in celebration following the early goal in Volgograd
Kyle Walker was then adjudged to have committed a foul on Tunisia's Fakhreddine Ben Youssef after a tangle in the box
Ferjani Sassi put the ball to the right of Jordan Pickford, who, despite getting a fingertip to it, could not keep it out of his goal
But, just when it seemed England had thrown everything at Tunisia, it was Kane who popped up at the back post late on
The striker sprints away to the crowd, elated after a truly stunning effort to turn the game on its head in the dying minutes
Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate roars to the crowd after hearing the final whistle, with his side off to a positive start
Raheem Sterling with England's marksman Kane in the dressing room after the striker fronted up to the national media
England won. The best team won. That’s good news, too. England haven’t looked as lively as they did in the opening 45 minutes here in close to two decades. It was far from the perfect display but it is not going to be when Gareth Southgate is sending out England’s youngest team at a World Cup since 1962.
There will be errors like the one Kyle Walker made to give away the penalty for Tunisia’s goal — although it was still a soft fall —there will be misses, like Sterling’s horror show after just five minutes. Nerves can do that.
Yet, in glimpses, Southgate saw his vision, his England, take flight. They were everything the manager would have wished: fast, positive, ambitious, optimistic. They dominated Tunisia, creating enough chances to have won not just this first group game, but maybe all three.
They had six shots on target before half-time: more than any team at the World Cup so far. More than Spain and Portugal, more than Lionel Messi’s Argentina against Iceland; more than Brazil. And it was just like watching Brazil at times. Except the finishing. The finishing, Kane aside, was like watching Alan Brazil. Long retired, and after four days at Cheltenham. Not a pretty sight.
And then there’s Kane, entering a World Cup as if born to it, the youngest captain of his country at the tournament, the oldest head on the field when it mattered.
Anyone who wondered why Southgate made him captain now knows: because he leads by example, because he stays cool under pressure, because he makes good things happen, and can drag people through adversity with him. And memo to Roy Hodgson: it’s a lot easier to score from corners when you’re not taking them.
The players emerge from the tunnel at the Volgograd Arena ahead of their opening fixture at the 2018 World Cup
England manager Southgate and his assistant manager Steve Holland take their seats in the dugout ahead of kick off
England came out of the blocks firing and were it not for Mouez Hassen's big toe, Jesse Lingard would have put them ahead
Moments later Lingard ghosted into the box and squared it to Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling at the back post
Sterling, however, could not convert despite being under very little pressure, but England's early dominance soon told
John Stones leapt tremendously above the Tunisia players from a corner and rifled a header towards Hassen's goal
The Tunisia stopper managed to keep the ball out after an incredibly acrobatic save, but the ball fell to the England skipper
The Tottenham man poached brilliantly to turn past the helpless Tunisia keeper and get England's campaign up and running
The jubilant England players pile atop Kane following England's opener at the Volgograd Arena on Monday night
Three Lions No 1 Jordan Pickford turns to the travelling England supporters and lets out a yell of celebration after the goal
Kane changed England’s World Cup narrative and maybe this entire campaign, too. England were slipping towards another night of disappointment, but Kane had other ideas. He’s always got other ideas. He had other ideas when Tottenham thought he wouldn’t make it as an elite goal-scorer, other ideas when the European Championship in 2016 appeared to have blighted his England career, and other ideas when England were conforming to type in Volgograd.
The announcement of four minutes’ injury time had just been made and England appeared to have run out of steam. We’ve seen this film before.
They won a corner, but hadn’t threatened even from that favourite area in the second half. Kieran Trippier whipped the ball in, Harry Maguire won the header, as he had all night, and there was Kane — just as he had been for the first goal — at the far post seeking the glimmer of a chance. He nodded it past reserve goalkeeper Farouk Ben Mustapha. Against all expectations, England were going to get what they deserved.
Now this has to be repeated. Not just the performance but the scoreline. One won’t do. That has been England’s problem at tournaments for too long now. They score one. Never two. And if they are going to take risks as Southgate wishes them to, they have to be prepared to score two.
But the celebrations were soon brought to a shuddering halt following Walker's challenge with Ben Youssef in the area
Referee Wilmar Roldan points to the penalty spot to award Tunisia with a spot kick and a golden chance to level the match
Roldan then brandishes a yellow card to Walker as Kane, Dele Alli and Co remonstrate with the referee after the decision
Sassi stepped up to the ball calmly and whipped it to the goalkeeper's right, which was enough to see him score for Tunisia
Sassi celebrates after levelling the score and turning the game on its head during a frantic first half at the Volgograd Arena
For, as tame as Tunisia’s penalty looked, there was plenty of professional opinion that blamed Walker for giving it away. Fakhreddine Ben Youssef made the most of it, and then some, but Walker’s positioning was poor. It needed Kane to overcome that. It now needs his team-mates to chip in.
That England went in level at half-time was a travesty; but it was a travesty, sadly, of the players’ own creation. Miss followed miss, blunder followed blunder. Not just half-chances, or even good chances, but absolute sitters, the sort any professional feels he could score with his eyes shut.
Defensively, Tunisia had no answer to Kane, Jesse Lingard, Sterling and Dele Alli in England’s front line. From set-pieces, they could not handle John Stones and, largely, Maguire. England were dominating, winning every ball in the air, getting behind the full backs, working opportunities in the box.
Had they scored even half what they created they would probably have been safe. But the chances fell to everybody bar Kane. That, and a dubious penalty award from Colombian official Wilmar Roldan, went against them.
Walker, out of position as a rare cross came in, caught Ben Youssef with a trailing, extended arm. If Ben Youssef falls that easily when touched he must be a nightmare on public transport but Roldan bought it, pointed to the spot, and despite some conversation with the referee impersonators dressed in their kit in a television studio, was given no reason to consult a screen or change his mind. Against that, Ferjani Sassi’s finish from the spot was outstanding. He swept the ball into the side-netting to his left, even though Jordan Pickford guessed correctly. Yet it should have been little more than a consolation. It should have been an irrelevance: and here’s why.
Stones swings a wild left boot at the ball after it falls kindly for him, but he fluffs his lines and Tunisia are let off the hook
Lingard, desperate to get back in front, pokes the ball beyond substitute goalkeeper Farouk Ben Mustapha – but it's just wide
The Manchester United forward is then found in acres of space at the back post but can only manage to slide it wide
Another massive chance goes begging as Lingard fires a volley from 12 yards out, but it ricochets off a Tunisian defender
There were many calls by England players for penalties after the Tunisia defenders appeared to grapple them in the box
This was England’s best performance in a tournament opener in many years. Much better than their last win, over Paraguay in 2006. Had the scoreline reflected England’s supremacy Southgate’s side would have laid down the most emphatic marker of any nation at this World Cup so far.
Instead, it was hard. You’ve heard commentators tell you how a player did the hard part, only to miss the goal. Ignore him; it’s rubbish. The goal is the hard part. That’s why strikers get the most money. Time and again, England did exactly what Southgate asked of them, got to the hard part, and flapped.
The game was only three minutes old when Jordan Henderson — whose passing range impressed — played a lovely ball over the top for Alli. Sterling couldn’t quite get on the end of it, but Lingard could and should have done better, his shot diverted around a post by the feet of goalkeeper Mouez Hassen. Just two minutes later, Alli played a beautiful reverse pass inside to release Lingard and his cross put Sterling in, the ball on a plate. What happened? He went for it with his wrong foot, somehow getting mixed up between that machine-gun right, and his lesser left, and sending the ball bobbling wide. There were 85 minutes to go and already the chance of the night had been spurned. It surely wasn’t going to get better than that.
Yet, it did. From an Ashley Young corner on 11 minutes, Stones’s header was palmed out by Hassen, but only as far as Kane, who turned it in. To make matters worse for Tunisia, the goalkeeper injured his shoulder making the save. He was replaced soon after by Ben Mustapha, but still England tried and failed in front of goal. Young hit a great cross after 24 minutes, but Lingard finished it woefully at the far post, scuffing the ball tamely wide. It was hoped the unexpected reverse of Tunisia’s equaliser would focus English minds. Sadly, no.
A 39th-minute goalmouth scramble saw Sterling miss the ball with an attempted overhead kick, then Stones miss it entirely trying a more conventional finish. Finally, Lingard went through one on one, slipping the ball past Ben Mustapha and then watching as it rolled agonisingly and hit the near post, diverting wide instead of straight out for a rebound finish.
Maybe Panama will give the rest of them the chance to get their eye in.
They need to, before what should be the group decider against Belgium. Kane can’t go it alone from here.
Southgate looks to ring the changes as he calls on Marcus Rashford to replace Raheem Sterling in the second half
But England had to put their trust in their skipper, who swivelled to generate immense power on his close-range header
Jubilant England supporters leap to their feat in the Volgograd Arena as their captain celebrates earning a vital three points
Harry Maguire and Lingard make their way to the fans after the game to show their appreciation for the support
