Dely Valdés praises Panama’s play ahead of England showdown

Julio César Dely Valdés said Panama had played well at the World Cup even if the results had not followed, as the national team was preparing to close its campaign against England. His view reached back to the moment Panama first qualified for the tournament, when he said the passage to Russia represented an "antes y un después" for the country and showed that the team had learned from past mistakes.

Panama’s first World Cup came in 2018 after it finished third in Concacaf’s final hexagonal. The team opened the tournament on June 18, 2018, with a 3-0 defeat to Belgium, but the mere fact of reaching Russia marked a break from years of near misses. Dely Valdés, a former selector and a reference figure in Panamanian football, had also been on the bench when Panama came close to qualifying for Brazil 2014, a run FIFA has kept in view when describing his place in the country’s football history.

The harshest lesson came six days later in Nizhny Novgorod, where England beat Panama 6-1 on June 24, 2018. Harry Kane scored a hat-trick, John Stones added two goals, and Jesse Lingard completed the rout. Felipe Baloy scored Panama’s first goal in a World Cup only after the scoreboard had already reached 6-0, a detail that turned one consoling moment into the clearest measure of the gulf between Panama’s effort and the result.

The match also settled Group G, with England moving on and Panama leaving the tournament after its first two appearances. FIFA later recalled Baloy’s strike as the first in Panamanian World Cup history and, in 2026, again linked Panama and England as the teams met in the tournament draw. That history gives Dely Valdés’s argument its force: Panama had shown enough to earn respect, but in Russia the margins, the defensive breakdowns, and the missed chances were what remained on the record.