NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia, June 23 (Xinhua) -- England head coach Gareth Southgate said on Saturday that his team has studied Panama "a lot over the last few months" and he expected no more surprises in their World Cup Group G clash here in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday.
"We've done a lot of due diligence over the last few months. We don't expect too many surprises of how they play," Southgate told reporters. "Their route to qualification was incredible. They knocked out the United States."
Panama made their debut at the World Cup on Monday but suffered a 3-0 loss to Belgium. The British media worried that the Three Lions knew little about the World Cup newcomer despite its low FIFA ranking.
After Belgium crushed Tunisia 5-2 on Saturday, a victory against Panama will ensure England to seal a position in the last 16.
However, England's coach reminded his men to raise their vigilance and learned lessons from the previous matches in Russia.
"We've seen already the difficulty big countries in terms of rankings have had in breaking down lower-ranked teams. That's been a theme right the way throughout. There's no way there's any complacency in the way we've prepared for the game," Southgate said.
"The situation in the group is obviously a healthy one for us, but we've got to focus on our performance," he added.
