Panama vs Tunisia LIVE World Cup 2018: Latest score, goals and updates and prediction, how to watch online, team news, line-ups, betting odds
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Both Tunisia and Panama are looking to get their first win of the World Cup following two group defeats.
Tunisia had a better game against England than against Belgium. The North African side managed two goals during their 5-2 loss to Belgium and also a goal against England during the group stage opener thanks to Ferjani Sassi’s penalty.
Panama are coming into this game on the back of a heavy defeat at the hands of England. Panama scored their first ever World Cup goal in that game, which came when Felipe Baloy following Ricardo Ávila’s free kick into the penalty area.
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What time is it?
Panama vs Tunisia kicks off at 19:00 in Saransk.
Where can I watch it?
Live coverage is available on ITV 4 and online via the ITV Hub.
Odds
Panama: 7/2
Tunisia: 4/5
Draw: 13/5
Prediction
Tunisia will likely leave this game with a win. They have managed to get some goals against the two better teams in the group which means they should be able to score against the Panamanian side.
Tunisia in goalkeeping crisis
Tunisia will start third-choice goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi and have striker Fakhreddine Ben Youssef act as his back-up in their final World Cup game against Panama on Thursday after FIFA rejected their request to add a replacement keeper to the squad.
Tunisia's first and second choice keepers are unavailable after picking up injuries at the tournament and they flew Moez Ben Cherifia from champions Esperance to Moscow on Wednesday in the hope he might be allowed to be included in the squad.
However, the Tunisian Football Federation said on Thursday that this request had been rejected by FIFA and they would have to use the players currently in the squad.
Tunisia lost first-choice goalkeeper Mouez Hassen after just 16 minutes of their first game against England when he injured his shoulder in a collision with Jesse Lingard.
Farouk Ben Mustapha took his place in the 2-1 defeat in Volgograd and also played in the 5-2 loss to Belgium in Moscow before suffering knee ligament damage in training on Tuesday.
FIFA allow injury replacements in the World Cup only up until 24 hours before a team's first game. (Mark Gleeson, Reuters)
England vs Belgium 'like a Premier League match'
12 of Belgium's 23 players play in the Premier League and, well, all of England's team do, which means this fixture will be "like a Premier League match, barring a few players," according to Phil Jones.
“We know what we’re up against, we know their players inside out and know what we’ve got to do," added the Manchester United and England defender. "We play against them near enough every week.”
Vardy to start
According to reports, Jamie Vardy will make his first World Cup start against Belgium, which means Harry Kane could be rested.
With progress to the round of 16 already secured, Southgate is rotating the team and will start Leicester's Vardy whose only previous international tournament start was against Slovakia in England's final group game in the 2016 European Championship with qualification already in the bag.
Neville: "From an England view, it’s important to give the squad faith and trust."
Former England and Manchester United right-back Gary Neville has urged Gareth Southgate to make some changes to the team to ensure that they avoid fatigue in later stages.
Neville points to his own experiences as a reminder that knockout rounds in tournaments are very tiring.
Panama targeting "pure happiness"
Panama head coach Hernan Dario Gomez wants to leave Russia with at least one point and says victory will have the whole country smiling upon their return.
"We are doing everything we can to get a positive result for Panama," he said.
"It will not be as intense as our two games against the European teams, we are again the underdogs but we want to take at least one point back to Panama."
"We are still in the World Cup, we haven't packed our bags yet and for us anything positive is important.
"To win and get three points would be pure happiness for us and the entire country, we would be writing a page in the history books so we still have a will to work.
"We will try to make sure we keep our balance and we still have the dream to win the match and that hasn't changed."
History says England should try and beat Beglium
Although qualifying second grants England an arguably easier route to bringing football home, the last seven World Cup winners finished first in their group.
↵"It's all about momentum" Gary Cahill targeting third England win
Gary Cahill knows how unusual this England situation is. He has been to two tournaments before - it should have been three, more on which later - and has never known England to have won both of their first two games. This is unchartered territory, even for Cahill, England’s most experienced and decorated player.
Tunisia have catching up to do
Tunisia coach Nabil Maaloul said Arabian football still had a lot of catching up to do to present a challenge at the highest level. Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all failed to move to the next stage in Russia.
Maaloul said. "We need two more generations to reach (the top) level of performance in terms of fitness and physical strength. We are far from the required level."
Captain Wahbi Khazri also said the gap between European and Arab teams was too wide.
"The level was too high, too elevated over the two games," Khazri said.
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