I questioned Southgate’s decision to not start Foden, who’s been better than Sterling this season, but that decision worked out fine.
Southgate also went for familiarity over form in choosing Mount instead of Maddison, and Pickford rather than Pope.
England played a 4-2-3-1 instead of the more usual 3-4-3. It’s not that much of a risk given the strength of the opposition in their group, but the efficacy and resilience of their formation will be tested against stronger teams.
The start of the game was slightly cagey. There were stoppages for about 10 minutes after Iran’s keeper took a huge, painful collision to the nose.
Much-maligned Maguire almost opened the scoring after heading Trippier’s corner off the crossbar
Shaw clipped a good ball which Bellingham put past the keeper who was rooted to the spot.
Maguire, dangerous in the box, knocked a header down for Saka’s expert volley.
Kane beat his man easily to put in a good ball for Sterling to tap home with the outside of his right.
There was a ridiculous amount of first half extra time. 14 minutes!
England cruised through the 2nd half. Iran made it too easy for England to score 3 more.
A reverse pass and sharp movement by Taremi got Iran a consolation goal to the fury of Pickford.
Grealish fulfilled his promise to a fan with cerebral palsy by doing his celebration after he slotted in England’s sixth.
A Stones foul earned Iran a penalty in the last minute, which gave Iranian fans something to cheer about.
There was almost 30 minutes of injury time in total. This World Cup appears to have a different method of tallying injury time, resulting in systematically longer times.
Iran were not disorganised but were too easily beaten in individual defensive situations. They have a tendency to foul to break up play but it was not enough to prevent England from making multiple fluent passages.
The group stage games are a good platform for England to build their confidence after a winless run and relegation in the Nations League.
On a controversial note, 7 European nations who were set to wear OneLove captain’s armbands to support LGBTQ+ made a last-minute U-turn on their decision. Qatar has strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
The change in stance came after fears that the player wearing the armband will be shown a yellow card. Yellow cards in the World Cup carry a high risk of a one-game suspension.
England captain Harry Kane and Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk have said that they would wear the controversial armband while France captain Hugo Lloris expressed that he would rather respect the culture of Qatar.
And if you were wondering why Iran’s players did not move their lips during their National Anthem, they did not sing as a protest against their government, which is embroiled in protests.
BLOGOPUS 