The good news for Thomas Tuchel is that there is a fit England international right-back in New York. The less good news is that Gary Neville is 51 and a pundit on a Brooklyn roof terrace.
As England found the least convincing of ways to win Group L, their curse of the right-backs continued. It is, admittedly, partly a self-inflicted curse, created by strange decision-making and needless stubbornness. As Jude Bellingham ended Panama’s resistance, a hooked breakthrough showing an enduring capacity to rescue wretched performances, England were temporarily down to 10 men.
