VOLGOGRAD, Russia — And on the fifth day of the 2018 World Cup, that great, recurring soap opera of international sports finally got its chance to begin again: The not-so-mighty but ever-hopeful English national team took the field.
Thousands of red-and-white clad fans had descended on this riverside city once known as Stalingrad for England’s Monday-night match against Tunisia. What they got was a nail-biting 2-1 victory that suggested that this time, as they have been promised, it really is going to be different for England. Harry Kane’s header from 4 yards out off a corner kick, just seconds into stoppage time, salvaged a game that seemed destined to become one more painful chapter in England’s major competition melodrama.