Confident performance sees England dominate Iran in opening game win

England looked assured in a display as they put six goals past a poor Iran side.

19-year-old Jude Bellingham gave England the lead with a header in the 35th minute. The Dortmund star put in a performance that looked way beyond his teenage years and looks to be a real star for years to come.

Bukayo Saka scored twice, with his second goal being a great individual effort. Receiving the ball on the right wing, the Arsenal forward cut inside the box and had three team mates free to his left. Instead of playing the ball through, Saka took a couple of extra touches to get past some Iranian defenders and fired low into the far corner.

Raheem Sterling grabbed England’s third and final goal of the first half in the first of fourteen minutes of injury time given following a nasty clash of heads that saw Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand seriously concussed.

Unbelievably, Alireza carried on playing after treatment but soon signalled to the bench that he would have to come off.

This should have been the Iranian medical team’s decision immediately after seeing the incident and assessed the injury. It was a nasty incident and looked worse every time the FIFA cameras insisted on broadcasting from many different angles.

Harry Kane’s somewhat anonymous display may be Gareth Southgate’s only concern when it came to his forwards line. The captain never tested either of the Iranian goalkeepers who featured in the match.

Gareth Southgate brought off the three front men he started with and gave Marcus Rashford and Callum Wilson a run out. Both were instrumental in England’s final two goals of the game.

Marcus Rashford scored a well-taken goal, taking two touches to control the ball before firing low past Iran’s substitute goalkeeper .

Wilson delightfully assisted England’s sixth when he could have taken a shot at goal instead. The Newcastle man rolled the ball back selflessly to substitute Jack Grealish who found the net with ease from a few yards out.

My main concern about the victory was the Iran managed to score twice. Southgate was a centre half in his playing days and the two conceded may play on his mind as he focuses on the next two group games. USA and Wales will both be a lot tougher to break down than Iran were today and Southgate may sacrifice some of the free-flowing attacking football seen today for extra caution at the back.

VAR again made a questionable decision in the first half when Harry Maguire was pulled to the ground at England’s first corner.

The referee was called over by VAR in the final few moments of the ten minutes injury time at the end of the game to look at a similar foul by an England defender. It was a lot less cynical but the penalty was given and Iran’s record goalscorer Taremi sent Jordan Pickford the wrong way to make the score 6-2.

Next up, USA on Friday. That will be the first real test of the tournament.

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Chris Amy

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