Copper perhaps with police heading for England match (8)
I believe the answer is:
coincide
'match' is the definition.
(I know that coincide is a more specific form of the action match)
'copper perhaps with police heading for england' is the wordplay.
'copper perhaps' becomes 'coin' (copper is a kind of coin).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'police' becomes 'CID' (abbreviation for Criminal Investigation Department).
'heading for' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'england' is 'e'.
'coin'+'cid'+'e'='COINCIDE'
(Other definitions for coincide that I've seen before include "Occur simultaneously" , "Occur together" , "match" , "Happen simultaneously" , "Happen together" .)