The Three Lions found themselves five-up at half time following a remarkable and ruthless dismantling of their Central American opponents - although a fair chunk of Panama's pain was self-inflicted.

Having failed to make it out of their group in Brazil four years ago, England have done so with a game to spare.

Gareth Southgate's team will tackle Belgium at 4:00am on Thursday morning AEST to merely settle the matter of which team finishes first and second in Group G.

The mercury had shot to 34C for kick-off in the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, but England barely broke into a sweat to establish an insurmountable first-half lead.

John Stones stole in unmarked from Kieran Trippier's corner to nod them ahead (8'), before Jesse Lingard was bundled down by New York Red Bulls defender Fidel Escobar in the box, and Harry Kane thrashed home the resultant penalty (22').

This put Panama in a tempestuous mood which didn't improve when Lingard was allowed to glide into a shooting position on the edge of the box and send a soaring strike high past the flailing Jaime Penedo.

A neat set-piece routine allowed Stones to dispatch his second goal after Harry Maguire had been denied (40'). Then a bemusing grapple on Kane by Anibal Godoy was punished by another penalty - the 16th awarded at the tournament so far - which the Tottenham striker converted.

England had become just the fifth side in the history of the competition too chalk up five goals in the opening 45 minutes.

Kane completed his hat-trick and moved above Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku at the top of the goalscoring chart when he deflected in a shot from Reuben Loftus-Cheek (62'), at which point Southgate rung the changes.

Jamie Vardy, Fabian Delph and Danny Rose replaced Kane, Lingard and Trippier, which stemmed England's steady flow of goals.

Then came a moment of history, as Panama's 103-cap captain Felipe Baloy slid in to tuck away Ricardo Avila's free-kick (73') and score his nation's first World Cup goal. It sparked jubilation in the stands from their noisy supporters, in spite of the scoreline.

It also rounded off a wild afternoon on which England nipped above Belgium to the top of Group G by virtue of their fewer yellow cards, ahead of that first-or-second decider on Tuesday.