England captain Harry Kane declared his arrival on football’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.

Just when it looked like the ‘Three Lions’ were going to extend their disappointing run in World Cup tournaments, Kane stooped at the far post to head home in the 91st minute.

Mindful of Ronaldo’s hat-trick for Portugal against Spain on Friday and doubles for Spaniard Diego Costa, also in that match, and Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku, Kane is the first England player to score twice in a World Cup game since Gary Lineker in 1990.

A stunning volley from Dries Mertens and a Romelu Lukaku double broke the resistance of a brave Panama side on their World Cup debut as Belgium cruised to a 3-0 win in their opening Group G game on Monday

Sweden won an opening World Cup game for the first time since 1958 with a narrow 1-0 victory over South Korea, but they will need to find their shooting boots if they are to match their two other, trickier opponents in Group F.

After dominating the game but missing a string of chances, the Swedes won a 65th-minute penalty when Kim Min-woo brought down Viktor Claesson in the box. Salvadoran referee Joel Aguilar initially waved the Swedes away, before being called to consult the Video Assistant Referee system.

In the second VAR-awarded penalty of the World Cup, Sweden’s 33-year-old captain Andreas Granqvist swept the ball low and left of impressive goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo.

“The VAR took a while but we are very pleased they had it … I was pretty sure,” Granqvist said of the wait.

The result brought wild celebrations from hordes of yellow-clad Swedish fans, fearful their team would draw another blank after failing to score in their last three games.

Sweden had not won an opening World Cup game since 1958, when they were the hosts and eventual runners-up.