Qatar: England started their FIFA World Cup 2022 journey in Qatar in style, defeating Iran by 6 goals at their opening match in the FIFA World Cup 2022, while the Gulf country did not give England a clean sheet and scored 2 goals.  

Iran and England, both in the Group B, played their opening match in the FIFA World Cup 2022 at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. The English 4-5-1 formation proved beneficial against Iran's 4-3-3. For England, Jude Bellingham broke the deadlock at the 35th minute and scored a goal with a classic header for the centre of the box. He was assisted with by Luke Shaw with a cross. As England were dominating the game from the beginning, Bukayo Saka gave it another momentum as he latched onto a loose ball and finished it from the corner at the 43rd minute.

This gave England a 2-0 lead against Iran. Iran was trying to understand and cope up with the second goal against them, England's Raheem Sterling stunned the Iranians as he scored the third goal of the team. Assisted by captain Harry Kane, Sterling took the ball on the volly with the outside of his boot and England were at a comfortable 3-0 lead by then. Even though 14 minutes of injury time were added, that took place after Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand collided with his teammate Majid Hosseini over a nasty clash of heads, Iran struggled to get the ball in the nets. However, the game did turn a bit after the first half. Iranian footballs appeared more fierce and attacking, restricting the English players in the second half. But, stopping Bukayo Saka seemed like a tough job. In the 62th minute, Saka scored again. The English player after receiving an assist from Sterling, though fired low, the ball went straight to the net. With this, England were enjoying with a 4-0 lead.

The enjoyment for England didn't last long, as Iran's Mehdi Taremi spoiled it with a goal just 3 minutes later, not giving England keep a clean sheet. England is known to be one such team that doesn't sit after opponent scores a goal. They soon replaced Saka with Marcus Rashford, and he scored for the team at the 71st minute. With this England took a comfortable lead of 5-1 against Iran. The English player did not stop at this and kept on with the aggressive approach. Jack Grealish scored the 6th goal for England, as he chose to simply tuck the ball into the net, making it 6-1 for the team in the 90th minute. This is his first goal of the match. Even after 10 minutes added to the match, Iran could not save itself from a thrashing defeat by England.  In the extra 10th minutes, a penalty was rewarded to Iran, to which Mehdi Taremi hit for the straight nets. This led the score to reach England 6, and Iran 2.  

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 22 2022

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