Comment: England can dare to dream through Harry Kane

An impressive opening first half burst was followed by a pretty turgid second 45 minutes in which England were lacking the creativity and, mostly importantly, the quality, to unlock supposedly inferior opposition.

Throw in a couple of controversial refereeing decisions and it was the same old story, same old limited England, same old World Cup hopes and expectations being dampened. And then...

Harry Kane has now scored 10 goals in his last eight England appearances. For club and country he's netted 48 in his last 54...and Kane is the sole reason that the nation can legitimately dream of England doing something decent in this World Cup.

How often in the past have England's star players gone into a major tournament lacking form and fitness? Beckham, Rooney, Owen, Gerrard...we've seen it all before.

But Kane arrived in Russia on the back of the season of his life – and here he highlighted exactly what he's capable of with two clinical finishes, showing his wasteful team mates how it's done.

No one quite knows what to expect from this rather cobbled together England squad but there were more positive then negative signs here, particularly in the first half.

Gareth Southgate's team set out on the front foot and should have raced into a comfortable early lead.

There was a confidence about their play. Kieran Trippier and Ashley Young overlapped with attacking intent, Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard found space in dangerous areas and Jordan Henderson played forward passes...it was all happening.

For once, arguably only Kyle Walker aside, England had...wait for it...round pegs in round holes.

Everyone knew their roles and it looked like the formation and style of play genuinely suited them.

They were purposeful, enterprising, creative and single-minded. And a 3-0 or 4-0 half time scoreline wouldn’t have flattered them.

As it was, they had to settle for 1-1 at half time thanks to a dodgy flailing arm from Walker for an admittedly soft penalty, although Walker had no reason to give the referee a decision to make.

Give that penalty, though, and the 10 or so officials overseeing the game (four in the stadium and a gaggle of VAR officials in a small room hundreds of miles away) surely have to give spot kicks for two wrestling moves on Kane which criminally went unchecked.

At half time Southgate’s message, like Sir Alf Ramsey's all those years ago at a far more important World Cup juncture, may have been ‘you’ve beaten them once, now go and do it again’.

Against the highest ranked African team in the tournament England couldn't reproduce the same tempo, though.

Southgate made the right substitutions, taking off the haphazard Sterling and the ineffective (and potentially injured) Alli for Rashford and Loftus-Cheek, who both made positive contributions but couldn't unlock the Tunisian defence.

On the BBC Martin Keown lazily blamed the heat, but it was England's limitations that let them down – and against better opposition in the knockout stages, should England get there, they will probably come up short.

For now though they can do no more. A win was vital to help create what should be a fairly pain-free passage to the last 16 and avoid the ignominy of a first round exit, as in 2014. Victory over Panama will ensure as such.

There is undoubtedly a glaring lack of quality when compared to the likes of Germany, Brazil and Argentina, who will all improve despite their first-game blips.

However through Kane – and through the team's impressive persistence and belief to keep pushing for the win – England can at least dare to dream.