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The concern began to creep and England were caught out with Kyle Walker, foolishly, throwing his arm back as he contested a cross and catching Fakhreddine Ben Youssef in the face.
The forward went down, claiming the offence and the Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan pointed to the penalty spot.
Ferjani Sassi took seven steps back, strolled up and stroked his right footed shot into the corner of the goal.
Jordan Pickford guessed right, got a finger tip to the ball but was beaten. It was coolly executed. A sassy penalty by Sassi.
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| Harry Kane scored the winning goal |
Harry Kane said he might well score three like Cristiano Ronaldo. People tittered. Instead it was just the two for the England captain as he struck the goals to gain England a precious victory in their opening Group G fixture against an obdurate, organised and occasionally cynical Tunisia.
It mattered in terms of
perception as well as points. These were Kane’s first tournament goals
and he, and England, are up and running. What a contribution from the
captain.
At times England wrestled with familiar failings. At times, Tunisia
just wrestled and not least when it came to dealing with Kane who was
dragged to the turf on at least two occasions inside the penalty area.
The first probably was rightly not given, as John Stones already
appeared to have committed a foul, but the second appeared a blatant
penalty.
Where was the video assistant referee (VAR)?
After being overwhelmed at
set-pieces early on the Tunisians resorted to grapple tactics which
seemed to have hauled England down into a usual sense of stifling
frustration especially in an increasingly drifting second-half.
The
Tunisians swarmed around England like the midges and mosquitoes that
plagued this stadium on the banks of the River Volga and so irritated
the players.
Tunisia 1 - 2 England (Harry Kane, 90 + 1 min)
That was
until injury-time when Harry Maguire, who was also being regularly
man-handled, finally found some space to meet a corner and flick the
ball towards the back-post where Kane had drifted free and headed home.
Except it was not as simple as that.
The forward could easily have sent the chance over the bar but he
twisted his body, strained his neck and whipped it into the net in the
tight space between goalkeeper and goal-frame.
In fact both of Kane’s
goals came from corners. Thankfully, unlike at Euro 2016, he was not
tasked with taking them.
What a
finish and what a finish to this match. In a city, formerly Stalingrad,
where history hangs heavy, England had felt their own footballing
history beginning to burden them once again after such a luminous start.
Stay calm under pressure.
Find a solution. They had been key messages
from manager Gareth Southgate. And for once England eventually did just
that.
Southgate had urged England to attack the tournament, attack the
World Cup. They did that also until adversity and errors struck.
But
they overcame them. They, hopefully, removed a mental block in doing so.
How wonderful would that be?
This result means that, for the first time
in five tournaments, since 2006 in fact, England have won their opening
game.
Next up it is Panama and then Belgium and a last-16 place should
now be in their grasp. The 2,000 England fans inside this stadium sang
and sang at the final whistle. What a relief.
There are issues. Defensively England remain far from assured with
Ashley Young - whose place will be under threat from Danny Rose - and
Maguire making some wrong decisions and the 3-5-2 under question.
while
debate will re-open over the effectiveness of Raheem Sterling who
appeared shorn of confidence after a woeful early miss and lasted barely
an hour before being replaced by the far more effective
Marcus Rashford
while there was rich food for thought in the positive contribution of
Ruben Loftus-Cheek who appears to have that bit of subtilty to unpick a
packed defence.
There were positives also with Kieran Trippier outstandingly creative
down the right flank, Kane predatory and Jordan Henderson fully
justifying his selection as the midfield anchor.
They
missed chance after chance after chance and scored just once, striking
the frame of the goal twice.
They had to be more ruthless and it seemed
they would be just that as Kane scored on 11 minutes as Stones met
Young’s corner with a superb leap, an even more superb header and
goalkeeper Mouez Hassen somehow clawed it out.
Unfortunately for him it
dropped to Kane who side-foot volleyed into the net from close-range.
Before that Hassen had kept Tunisia in it as he did well to divert
Jesse Lingard’s deflected shot away for a corner.
Even so Lingard had to
score and had to score when he then miscued a volley into the
side-netting. Sterling, also, had to score but scuffed wide the goal
beckoning while after conceding Hassen could not carry on, having
already hurt his shoulder, and departed in tears. The goalkeeper had
also denied Maguire, clawing away his header.
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| Tunisia was given a penalty |
The concern began to creep and England were caught out with Kyle Walker, foolishly, throwing his arm back as he contested a cross and catching Fakhreddine Ben Youssef in the face.
The forward went down, claiming the offence and the Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan pointed to the penalty spot.
Ferjani Sassi took seven steps back, strolled up and stroked his right footed shot into the corner of the goal.
Jordan Pickford guessed right, got a finger tip to the ball but was beaten. It was coolly executed. A sassy penalty by Sassi.