MICHAEL O’NEILL saw England’s World Cup opponents Panama draw 0-0 with his Northern Ireland team on Tuesday night and expects the Three Lions to be “too strong” for the Central Americans next month.

O’Neill’s side were invited to Los Canaleros’ send-off soiree and though they did not totally spoil the party, they made sure there was no victory for the Panamanians to celebrate prior to their first ever World Cup.

Panama have now drawn with two of the home nations — Wales and Northern Ireland — since November ahead of their June 24 date with Gareth Southgate’s England in their second group game in Russia.

O’Neill knows all about how a smaller country can upset the odds at a major tournament, having led Northern Ireland to the last 16 at Euro 2016, yet he expects England and Belgium to take care of business against Panama.

“There’s always a chance in tournament football [but] I’ll be honest, I would be surprised if England and Belgium don’t beat them,” he said.

“In saying that, tournament football is different. If someone gets off to a bad start, someone gets off to a good start, that second game can always be very, very interesting. You get momentum, you get confidence.

“They’ve had a few difficult games in Europe so they’ve tried to change how they play when they play European teams.

“We’ll see how it goes but it’s going to be a tough ask for them to do anything in terms of coming through the first phase of the tournament.”

Panama have arranged a host of friendlies against European opposition since learning who they would meet at the World Cup so there was a purpose to playing Northern Ireland ahead of facing England.

“Northern Ireland have most of their players playing in England,” midfielder Anibal Godoy said.

“They have maybe the same feeling. They played the long ball with tall guys, they are always very dangerous from corners and free-kicks.

“This is the football for Panama to try to work on for the World Cup.”