Panama coach full of praise for 'beautiful' England

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia (Reuters) - Panama were swept aside by a "spectacular and beautiful" England, said coach Hernan Dario Gomez on Sunday, heaping praise on Gareth Southgate's side after seeing his team thrashed 6-1 in the World Cup Group G clash.

Panama coach full of praise for 'beautiful' England

(Reuters)





Gomez gushed over the record-breaking England performance at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, which was the most one-sided result of the tournament in Russia.

The rout saw England through to the next stage, eliminated the World Cup debutants and handed Panama another harsh lesson after they lost their opening game 3-0 to Belgium.

"They were so precise, so accurate. England are so practical, it's a beautiful team," said Gomez, quick to admit the gulf in class between the two.

"I think that the winning margin for England could have been even bigger. We could have actually conceded more goals.

"We tried to play against England but there is a huge difference between our two teams. Conceding five goals in the first half was tough. We were feeling rather frightened by the big difference between the two teams."

Gomez even went over to his England counterpart before the resumption of the second half to congratulate him and assure him Panama would play a calmer game after letting their emotions get the better of them in the opening 45 minutes.

"What we tried to do after that was to avoid an even bigger catastrophe. We managed to hold onto the ball a little more in the second half and we kept playing in a very orderly fashion.

"Had we not done that our losing margin would have been far more than six goals.

"Conceding five goals in the first half is too much and I said to my assistants at the break 'I'm starting to feel scared.' All we could do by then was to try and stop England from scoring more."

Gomez said he had no complaints about the two penalties awarded to England, both thrashed in by captain Harry Kane.

Felipe Baloy's consolation goal in the second half for Panama, added the coach, had been a "moving" experience.

"Felipe Baloy will be retiring from the national team and God gave him the opportunity to score that goal because of the way he conducts himself in football," said Gomez.

"He's such a professional. When you are debutant at a World Cup, you enjoy your first goal so much more."





(Editing by Ian Chadband)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world