MOSCOW — Maybe Vitaly Milonov was right. Maybe all the jokes and sarcastic songs and abuse heaped on the Russian national team heading into the World Cup were misplaced.

Once dismissed as something of a national embarrassment, the Russian team has become a national treasure heading into Monday’s group-stage finale with Uruguay. It is already assured of a spot in the knockout stage of a World Cup for the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while its eight goals are the most scored in the first two games by a World Cup host since 1934.

So maybe Milonov was simply ahead of his time when he joined a group of lawmakers in drafting a bill that would impose a fine of 10,000 rubles (about $160) on anyone who criticized the team. It turns out he need not have bothered; the team silenced the critics on its own.

Russia was ranked 70th in the world coming into the World Cup, worst of the 32 teams, and looked like a good bet to become just the second host country, after South Africa in 2010, to exit the tournament in the group stage.

The team had gained little traction under Stanislav Cherchesov, a bald and burly former national team goalkeeper hired as coach in 2016 with the goal of getting Russia to the World Cup semifinals.

The team won just five times in Cherchesov’s first 20 games and appeared to be coming apart when midfielder Denis Cheryshev, who was born in Russia but raised in Spain, declined to speak Russian and talked only with Spanish-speaking reporters on the eve of the World Cup.

But all was forgiven when Cheryshev came off the bench to score two goals in Russia’s opening-game rout of Saudi Arabia. During the postgame news conference, Cherchesov, once among the most maligned men in the country, hurried out of the room to take a congratulatory call from Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.

And when Russia followed that with a win over Egypt five days later, clinching a spot in the second round, fans paraded through the streets and Metro stations of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

“It’s a true fever. Even my mother watches every game,” said Inna Kiyasova, a soccer fan who’s been taken by surprise by her country’s reaction to a sport she’s been following for years.

Kiyasova doesn’t expect Russia’s run through the tournament to last much longer, but she plans to enjoy it while she can.

“Russia’s game and its quality is overrated,” she said. “I don’t support the massive hysteria and happiness, but it’s definitely cool that Russia is in playoff for the first time ever.”

England 6, Panama 1: With two penalties and an accidental deflection, Harry Kane moved ahead of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo and put England into the round of 16 with a victory in Nizhny Novgorod.

Kane scored half of England’s goals in the rout of Panama, the national team’s largest-ever margin of victory at the World Cup.

“The third one is probably one of the luckiest ones of my career,” said Kane, who took the game ball to the locker room. “Not many players get to score a hat trick in a World Cup.”

Kane has scored a tournament-leading five goals at the World Cup in Russia, one more than Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku. He also has 18 total for England, one more than Beckham.

Japan 2, Senegal 2: Keisuke Honda came off the bench and scored from close range in the 78th minute to give the Japanese a draw in Yekaterinburg.

The draw keeps the two teams at the top of Group H ahead of their final matches.

Colombia 3, Poland 0: Radamel Falcao’s first World Cup goal kept Colombia in the running for a spot in the knockout round in a victory in Kazan. Poland, which has two losses, was eliminated.

Salah may walk: Mohamed Salah told Egypt team officials and teammates that he is considering retiring from international play because he is angry about being used as a political symbol while the World Cup squad was based in Chechnya, two people close to the player told The Associated Press.

Salah — the Muslim world’s most popular player — said he was particularly annoyed with a team banquet hosted by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who used the dinner to grant Salah “honorary citizenship,” according to the two people. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Associated Press contributed.