England 6 - Iran 2
Bellingham 35'
Saka 43', 62'
Kane 45+1'
Taremi 65', 90+13'(pen)
Rashford 71'
Grealish 89'
As an England fan I have seen a lot of false dawns and bad daydreams. The English press will paint every new England side as finally being the one to deliver and every single time, the England national team finds new ways to disappoint people. This 6-2 match might very well be the latest in a very very long line of sweetness which eventually turns sour. Expect nothing - that way when you do get something, you can be very thankful indeed.
At no point did England look troubled by Iran and the scoreline itself is flatteringly deceptive. Iran's two goals came while England was napping and then under dubious circumstances. England's 4-3-3 kept and maintained possession of the ball for 70% of the time, frequently won challenges to get it back and mostly kept the ball just proud of the halfway line.
The match looked like it was going to be a quiet affair with England putting in minimal effort and securing a 2-0 win. Having lost or drawn their last six encounters, this was not a side which on paper was brimming with confidence or form. However unlike previous World Cups which have been held in the dead period of the year between June and August, as this is in late-November, what we saw was a side which was match fit and sharp; with every single player in the 26 having played first team football within the previous 9 days.
The first and most critical event of the match was after an England drive forward when the Iranian goalkeeper Beiranvand clashed with his own defender and fell to the floor. As I have seen a lot of Iran play in the Asian Cup and the qualification matches, this looked like Iran trying to milk the referee's favour for all they could get and what we got was the training staff faff about for 14 minutes before Beiranvand was allowed to continue. However something clearly wasn't right because less than two minutes later, he put the ball out and asked to be replaced with a suspected concussion.
And so with a replacement keeper, we got another period where not much happened, before England broke out of their malaise and a Raheem Sterling delivery was turned goalbound by Maguire before clattering into the woodwork. This was the point where England realised that Iran weren't as good as they had made out and the gulf in class between the two teams widened to the point of no return. Four minutes later and after a push down the left hand side of the field, a Luke Shaw turn in was deftly headed into the top right of the goal by Jude Bellingham and England's account had been opened.
Eight minutes later, on anther England offensive which saw the Iran defence scrambling, a bobbling corner found the head of Saka and the advantage was doubled.
Two-nil up in any match is usually the safe point for at least a point to be secured because this means that the opposition has to put at least three beyond you and the third goal is often the decisive one which finally closes out all hope. It was Harry Kane (destroyer of worlds) who met with a second Sterling pass, to bang home the goal which killed this game off. It came on a counter attack after an Iran player fell about 30 yards away from the England goal and tried to argue for a free kick but this was waved away and even when Saka himself was brought down, the Brazilian referee waved on advantage which was proven and made good on.
Iran looked like they might be able to counter when Jahanbaksh manage to win a ball and break away from the centre circle before his 45+8th minute shot while added time tried to create its own pocket universe, managed to miss the goal, miss the 18 yard box, and miss all resemblance of common sense. Even thought this was 8 minutes into added time, 6 more minutes would be played out before even sanity had had enough and wanted a cup of tea; leaving England 3-0 up at the half.
I do not know what kind of team talk that a manager can give a side at half-time when they are 3-0 up other than to tell them to keep on doing what they're already doing. England returned to the pitch to do exactly that and kept on pressing forward. Just after the hour mark, Saka had sufficient space and time to casually change direction and the angle of attack, to defy four defenders who were on time, to drive home England's fourth goal and bag his own brace.
With the match as good as buried, England sort of fell asleep. After a period of pressing, Iran scrambled a ball forwards and were able to put Taremi in acres of space, to score a consolation goal which ended up being one-on-one with the keeper and the England defence nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps this woke up England and Gareth Southgate decided to make some changes; which included brining on Marcus Rashford. After an Iran poke over the line which was hideously ineffectual, Pickford thumped a ball up the park, which was then parried on, and Rashford who had only been on the pitch for two minutes, played super-sub and banged home England's fifth.
I should mention Grealish's 89th minute goal which came after a passage of play which saw the Iranian defence part like the red sea but really England's sixth goal appears as something of a footnote to a match which by that stage was well and truly dead.
However, that put into context Iran's second goal and why I do not understand the circumstances as to why the penalty which caused it was given. Deep into the period of added time, Iran managed to win a very late corner. The ball was punched away by Pickford and Taremi who had scored Iran's other goal, appeared to push forward and deliberately fall over. Had I been the Video Assistant Referee and been referred this by the man in black on the pitch, then my recommendation would not to have awarded a penalty but to have handed out a card to Taremi for simulation. As it was, I suspect that the penalty was awarded because as England were 6-1 up at the time, it was of practically zero consequence. Taremi duly scored his penalty goal but it wasn't really cheered on by the crowd.
The next and last kick of the game was the kick off; when immediately afterwards came the final whistle. Thus, the two halves of the match were 45+14 and 45+13 minutes long; which makes up a grand total of 117. To play out a 90 minute match where another 30% is tacked onto the end as added time, is absurd. I have never seen a regular football match which is this long and by the same token, I have never seen England score six.
To be honest, a 6-2 scoreline does highlight a potential problem for this England side. That is, they might be prone to losing focus.
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