Germany captain Manuel Neuer said Tuesday their two remaining World Cup group games are now effectively “finals” as the holders fight to stay in the tournament.

England captain Harry Kane declared his arrival on soccer’s biggest stage when he scored twice, including a stoppage-time winner, in a dramatic 2-1 victory over Tunisia as his team launched their World Cup campaign on Monday.

England ‘kane’ Tunisia 2-1 in World Cup group game

ARGENTINA Legend Diego Maradona has issued a scathing assessment  of his country’s World Cup draw with Iceland, warning manager Jorge Sampaoli that he would not be welcome back home unless he changes his tactics.

Disgraced former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter will defy a ban to attend two World Cup matches and also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman said Monday.

Romelu Lukaku netted a brace as a much-improved second-half performance gave Belgium an ultimately comfortable 3-0 victory over tournament debutants Panama in their World Cup opener in Sochi on Monday.

England supporters in the Russian city of Volgograd for their team’s first World Cup match on Monday were largely on their best behaviour but outnumbered by thousands of Tunisian fans — and besieged by mosquitoes.

Gareth Southgate named his expected line-up with a three-man defence and captain Harry Kane leading the attack as England embarked on their World Cup Group G campaign against Tunisia on Monday.

Starting line-ups for the World Cup Group G match between Tunisia and England in Volgograd on Monday (1800 GMT kick-off):

Mohamed Salah has been declared fit ahead of Egypt’s crunch game against Russia on Tuesday and coach Hector Cuper is optimistic his star striker will play.

Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson has issued an urgent plea for his fellow countrymen to turn out for their date with Nigeria in Volgograd on Friday. Icelanders were vastly outnumbered by Argentinians in their famous 1-1 draw with Lionel Messi and company in Moscow’s Spartak Stadium on Saturday. “Strangely we had difficulties in buying tickets. It was sold out for Iceland,” he said at the post-match press conference. “I can’t see where all the Argentinians bought their tickets because we could have sold much more in Iceland. We’ll have to discover (how to get) more for our next games.”

Sweden won an opening World Cup game for the first time since 1958 and ended a worrying goal drought with a 1-0 victory over South Korea.

AC Milan striker Nikola Kalinic has returned home from Croatia’s World Cup squad due to a back injury, coach Zlatko Dalic confirmed on Monday.

World Cup standings after Sunday’s Group E and Group F matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

AS Nigerians come to terms with the dreadful outing of the Super Eagles against Croatia in their opening game of the World Cup in Russia, many have been dissecting the team to find solution that may offer Nigeria an escape route into the second round of the competition to avoid the impending doom of exit that stares them in the face in the first round.