Midges annoy players from England and Tunisia in Volgograd

Gareth Southgate’s men made an outstanding start to the Group G encounter in Volgograd, where the 24-year-old opened the scoring with his first major tournament goal.

The win gave Gareth Southgate’s side the flawless start in their bid to qualify from Group G and are next in action on Sunday, when they take on tournament debutants Panama in Nizhny Novgorod.

England manager Gareth Southgate included Jesse Lingard in the starting lineup, with Jordan Henderson as the solitary England enforcer in the middle of the pitch and left Eric Dier on the bench, as widely expected.

Billy Grant, a Brentford fan from north London, said he was nervous about travelling to the World Cup host country amid fears of fan violence, racism in the stands and political tensions.

“Hopefully I can score a hat-trick and we’ll both be level”.

“They’re going “hey Billy have you written your will?’ And I’m like ‘don’t be ridiculous, it’s going to be fine”.

“Getting the three points on the board, getting the World Cup under way”.

“Yeah, he’s put me under a little bit of pressure for sure”, Kane replied when asked about Ronaldo’s stunning exploits at a pre-match news conference. “Which probably tells you something about my ability as a player!”

“The pleasing thing was the movement, the pace, the interchange”, Southgate said.

“My family are incredibly patriotic. I am really pleased and even if we had drawn the game I would have been really proud of the performance”.

He will be watching England against Tunisia on Monday, he said, and attending other matches later in the tournament too.

“I’m not taking anything for granted regarding Tunisia”.

“I think this group are more relaxed than in recent tournaments”.

For all the positive play in the opening 20 minutes, during which they took the lead through Kane, they wasted a series of chances and then lacked the ability to open up a massed defence.

“Everybody knows this is a team that is progressing and improving but we’re not the finished article”.

Lined up alongside Raheem Sterling as part of a two-pronged attack in front of a midfield five, which saw Tottenham team mate Kieran Trippier and Ashley Young deployed as wing-backs.