In the other Group L match, Croatia lead Ghana 1-0 at half-time, thanks to Petar Sucic’s forensic 25-yard laser into the bottom left. Will Unwin has details of that. It means that as things stand, Croatia would win the group and England would face Portugal in the last 32. But second halves are still to be played, while two other groups, including the one Portugal are in, don’t kick-off their final matches until later. So we’re probably getting ahead of ourselves here. But isn’t it fun to do so?! Ah fair enough. But we’re doing it.

45 min +3: Konsa’s slightly underhit backpass is nearly cut out by Jose Luis Rodriguez, but Pickford comes out to blooter clear.

45 min +2: Rashford carefully places the ball, takes a couple of steps backwards, runs up and … whips millimetres wide of the right-hand post. Mosquera had it covered, though.

45 min +1: Kane is bowled over by Harvey, pointlessly so, 25 yards out, just to the right of centre. Rashford and Saka hover over it, ready to deliver.

45 min: There will be three additional first-half minutes.

43 min: Saka one-twos his way into the Panama box from the right and wins England’s fifth corner of the game so far. He takes it himself, but doesn’t beat the first man. A header is bashed clear. Rashford sends the ball back into the mixer, and that’s a goal kick.

42 min: Anderson, the last man, does very well to deal with a flick-on while the lightning-quick Jose Luis Rodriguez scurries around him. Any mistake there, and England were in bother. He could be worth a few quid, this lad.

40 min: “The last time England played Panama they were already three goals up,” observes Phil Sawyer. “Is it too soon to start missing Gareth Southgate yet?”

38 min: A cross into the Panama box from the right. Rashford climbs highest at the far post, and heads narrowly over the bar. Earlier in the move, Saka claimed to have been clipped in the area by Gutierrez, but replays showed there was no contact, and the ref was right to wave away the penalty claim.

37 min: Croatia have taken the lead against Ghana. A 31st-minute long-range pearler from Petar Sucic. Terrible news for Scotland, who are now almost certainly knocked out, but not great for England either, because as it stands …

35 min: Anderson has a dig from distance. Straight at Mosquera.

34 min: Martinez, quarterbacking from deep, pings a pass down the inside-right channel for Murillo, free in the England box. Murillo miscontrols and it’s a goal kick … but then the flag pops up for offside, Murillo having gone far too early. England’s defence doesn’t look super-secure.

33 min: Guehi floats a pass forward from 40 yards to O’Reilly inside the Panama box. O’Reilly, with his back to goal on the penalty spot, tries to back-flick a header into the bottom left, but Mosquera has it covered and claims like the most casual of basketballers.

31 min: Rogers crosses from the right but the ball is flicked away from danger easily enough. Mosquera in the Panama goal has had very little to do so far.

30 min: … meanwhile on the same subject Richard Cutler would like to say: “These drinks breaks are a joke. I didn’t even have enough time to pour myself a cheeky rum and coke before it restarted. Come on Fifa, give us another minute, at least.” England aren’t putting on much of a show, so youse are all making your own entertainment, it seems.

29 min: “At least England can be thankful the hydration break did not break any momentum.” Ian Copestake with the wry quip of the World Cup so far.

28 min: Panama take a quick throw down the right, from which Harvey swivels and swishes a shot into the England side netting. Pickford had it covered, to be fair. Saka goes up the other end, running hard into the box from the right, but Andrade is on his shoulder and ushers him out of play.

26 min: Not long after the restart, Jose Luis Rodriguez takes advantage of space left down the Panama left by Quansah, and pearls a low drive towards the bottom left. Pickford needs a strong hand to turn around the post. Nothing comes from the corner. From which we can deduce: vindaloo < pork scratchings.

25 min: The curry and pork belly crunchies were tasty, mind you. Play starts again.

23 min: … and that’s drinks. According to our guide, England are bringing a bucket jar of vindaloo cooking sauce, while Panama are serving up some pork scratchings. Spice, salt and saturated fat ain’t gonna cut it for a Hydration Break, baby!

22 min: Kane and Rogers combine cutely down the middle and nearly open Panama up … but when Rogers and Saka try to get involved, hoping to take a shot, they’re swarmed.

21 min: Murillo crosses from the right, hoping to locate Tomas Rodriguez in the middle. Pickford comes off his line to punch confidently clear. Then up the other end, Bellingham tries to beat Mosquera from an extremely ambitious distance. Nope.

20 min: England press Panama back but the white shirts hold their shape. No way through. Speaking of those shirts, here’s Ian Copestake … “Not being totally switched on early doors, I found myself cheering on Tomas Rodriguez after twenty seconds as he was free to shoot thinking for some reason that the whites were England. But he really should have buried that.”

18 min: Anderson sends a free kick into the Panama box. Kane meets it on the left-hand edge of the six-yard area. He volleys onto Harvey’s arm, and the ball deflects out for a corner. Kane claims a penalty, but come on and come off it, Harvey’s arm was by his body and the two players were right next to each other. Just a corner, which leads to nowt.

16 min: Martinez takes the ball off Anderson and rolls Jose Luis Rodriguez into space down the middle. He’s got his namesake Tomas to his left, free, on the edge of the box, but gets the ball caught up between his feet and is eventually stripped of possession. Danger for England for a moment there.

15 min: Saka cuts in from the right, checks back, spins and shoots. Not a lot of power. Easy for Mosquera.

13 min: O’Reilly probes down the left but is forced to turn tail. Then on the other flank, Saka nearly strips Gutierrez of possession only for the defender to flop on the ball and purchase a cheap foul. Saka none too happy.

11 min: Barcenas wanders down the right and Konsa grabs a handful of his shirt. A free kick that leads to nothing. But the early signs are that Panama seem quite happy to get forward whenever they can, down both flanks.

10 min: Rashford is enjoying plenty of early joy down the left, and another determined run wins another corner. That leads to a weak Saka shot, which is easy for Mosquera to deal with.

9 min: Gutierrez looks to be tearing into all sorts of space down the left, but the whistle goes, as he’s just failed to keep the ball in play, something he should have done. England’s defence a bit all over the show there.

8 min: Rashford cuts in from the left and pearls a low shot towards the bottom left. It’s heading in, and Mosquera does well to turn it around the post. Anderson comes across to do what the absent Rice normally does, and his delivery causes the keeper to flap, but Saka can only slice the dropping ball harmlessly wide right.

6 min: England have a throw-in overturned because Quansah takes more than the five seconds allowed by the new regulations over it. The new order.

5 min: Rashford, from a deep position on the left, wedges down the channel for Bellingham, breaking into the box. Cordoba comes across to flick out for a corner before Bellingham can get a shot away. Nothing comes of the set piece.

4 min: Kane drops deep and tries to release Saka with a long diagonal to the right. Into the stand it goes. Thomas Tuchel, brow already furrowed, comes to the touchline to have his say. Meanwhile here’s Justin Kavanagh: “Never mind Foden/Palmer/Alexander-Arnold, David Wall: England will never win a World Cup without Harry Maguire saving their bacon with a last-minute header. (See the Ghana game.) I’m joking, of course, but I know a woman who’s not.”

2 min: The rain is coming down in the English style. “Could this game have a dehydration break?” quips John Delaney, tinder-dry.

1 min: Panama immediately go long, Quansah doesn’t get much on his clearing header, and Tomas Rodriguez has the opportunity to shoot from 20 yards. He whacks it straight at Pickford, but with some force. What a start that could have been!

Panama get the ball rolling. But only after a moment of silence to remember and pay respect to those who lost their life in the Venezuela earthquakes. Beautifully observed.

Here come the teams at the New York New Jersey Stadium, the home of the Jets and the Giants. The rain is coming down quite heavily, but there’s a fine atmosphere nonetheless. We’ll be off once anthems have been sung - Panama’s first, and all together with the chorus: ♫ ♬ At last we reached victory / In the joyous field of the union / With ardent fires of glory / A new nation shines bright! ♬ ♪♫ – and coins tossed. Soon!

While we wait for the big kick-off, some more news from our man in New Jersey, Jacob Steinberg … and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with this game. See, a reporter’s work is never done. Always with a finger on the pulse, always spinning plates.

Did you know the transfer window’s open? Easy to forget when there’s a World Cup on. Anyway Como are trying to sign an England player – Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea, who are holding out for £30m plus £5m in add-ons for the defender. Chelsea are also interested in signing Granit Xhaka - a key player for Xabi Alonso’s title-winning Bayer Leverkusen – but it’s hard to see Sunderland agreeing to sell the Switzerland midfielder.

To the dressing rooms! Panama’s first-choice kit is red, England’s is white, so of course both teams are playing in their second-choice colours of, respectively, white and red. No photo on the wires of the Panama pennant, and the England one is excruciatingly dull (see Pennant Watches passim), so let’s shelve that feature. What else to say? Erm … the branded towels look quite nice? You’d shove one in your kitbag on the way out. Hey, tell you what, though: those chairs don’t look particularly ergonomically sound for elite sports stars to slump on. Also their portable and easy-to-swing-at-head-height nature is surely asking for trouble should there be a need to deconstruct the performance after a shock loss. But no need to catastrophise like this. I’ve been watching Scotland too much. Hmm. I miss Pennant Watch.

Thomas Tuchel talks to ITV. “We feel very well prepared … strong team … ready to go … prove a point … do the next step and win the match … I am always excited about my team because we have a strong squad … very offensive … the target is to speed up the game … it is very difficult if you always play against ten men defending … devotion … commitment … we have some things to improve but we are ready for it … it is units on the side … we attack with three or four players … it is not just about Marcus [Rashford] or Anthony [Gordon] … Declan [Rice] got a knock … he is ready to play and I would like to manage his minutes … and he has a yellow card … Jude [Bellingham] goes in the 8 position and Morgan [Rogers] in 10.”

Pre-match postbag. “How early in the game (assuming it is still goalless) do you think that you’ll receive an email bemoaning the lack of Foden/ Palmer/Alexander-Arnold in the squad? I give it 20 minutes” – David Wall

“A heads up from a veteran Concacaf viewer. In addition to Panama deploying a low block the England team can expect a steady diet of stud massages on their feet, ankles and shins” – Mary Waltz

“As the England starting XI clearly shows, the Three Lions are ready to face truth or Konsa Quansahs today” – Peter Oh

Panama have made three changes to their starting XI after the 1-0 defeat to Croatia. Fidel Escobar and Jorge Gutiérrez replace Jiovany Ramos and César Blackman at the back, while up front José Fajardo makes way for Tomás Rodríguez. Panama will hope to, at some point, send on Adalberto Carrasquilla, their beating heart and playmaker, who has yet to play at this World Cup.

As expected, England have made five changes to the side that started the goalless draw with Ghana earlier in the week. Reece James is hamstrung, so in comes Jarell Quansah at right-back. Nico O’Reilly reclaims the left-back spot from Djed Spence. Declan Rice is rested, to save his back; he’s replaced by Morgan Rogers in a more attack-minded midfield. And up front, Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon are replaced by Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, who livened things up late on against Ghana.

England have taken the weather with them. As you can ascertain from the photo, it’s been tipping down for hours in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A home from home, then! (If we factor out the current heatwave sweeping the UK, that is, but let’s not pull at threads, you get the gist.) Happily there’s no expectation of electrical activity or anything else that would cause Fifa to get their protocols on. The only stoppages tonight, god willing, will be those ever-popular Hydration Breaks. Small mercies.

It’d also be remiss of me not to mention the plight of Scotland.

Sigh.

They’re still not technically out of it, although they need Groups J, K and L to play nice if they’re to survive. The chances of that happening currently stand at a whopping 0.07%, but that last point-zero-seven chunk will be ruthlessly shaved off should Ghana fail to beat Croatia by at least three goals in tonight’s other Group L match. No point concerning ourselves with the other necessary criteria for survival just yet, then.

“Too right it’s on, Scott,” comes the brave response to all that from Simon McMahon. “I’ve got my Ghana, Uzbekistan, DR Congo, Algeria and Austria fifth-and-fifth scarf on already. Come on Scotland! It’s coming home, baby!”

As for England … well, small sample, but the ups have been more pronounced than the downs, to be fair. A win and a draw, enough to guarantee qualification for the knockouts after Spain’s victory over Uruguay last night. The first, albeit lowest, hurdle already cleared without too much undue fuss.

Here’s how Panama have done so far. If you’re going to lose both matches and not erode confidence, two gutsy displays against fancied opposition is the only way to do it.

That low block, then. It’s proving quite the puzzle. But don’t worry! Some of the top managerial minds in the world – Thomas Tuchel and Emma Hayes, to be precise – are on it.

England’s opposition tonight. Bone up on the team that started this tournament as the 33rd best in the world with our team and player guides. Start with their star man Michael Amir Murillo and click on through …