England started on the right foot with a 6-2 win over Iran in their opening match of the World Cup. Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham opened the onslaught with a header in the 35th minute before Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling added clinical strikes to make it 3-0 before the break.
In the second half, Saka added his second before Iran brought one back through Mehdi Taremi minutes later in the 65th minute. Marcus Rashford continued the route with a deft left-footed strike in the 71st minute to make it 5-1.
Then Callum Wilson made his entrance for his 5th cap. The striker made an impact as he was freed down the right. Rather than go for glory, the unselfish Wilson pulled the ball back for fellow substitute Jack Grealish to tap it in to make it 6-1.
Iran added another consolation goal with Taremi converting a penalty after a strange VAR decision in added time to make the final outcome 6-2. Kieran Trippier played the entire match with Wilson getting a good 20 minutes and an assist after coming on for Harry Kane.
Next up for England is the USA on Friday. The Americans get their tournament underway against Wales later today. One thing to monitor is Kieran Trippier’s recovery from today’s extended outing. There was a whopping 24 minutes of extra time across both halves in today’s match.
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116 comments so far
hkgeordie
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:26 PM
Comment #1Well done lads!!!
Assassins Inc
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:28 PM
Comment #2Good result for England.
Novocastrian66
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:28 PM
Comment #3Paul Pogba dreams he is Jude Bellingham.
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:33 PM
Comment #4@Novocastrian
Paul Pogba is world champion, for Bellingham, we will see after one month…
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:34 PM
Comment #5The starting eleven for Senegal vs Netherland:
Sénégal: É. Mendy – Sabaly, K. Koulibaly, P.A. Cissé, A. Diallo – I. Gueye, C. Kouyaté, N. Mendy – I. Sarr; K. Diatta, B. Dia.
Pays-Bas: Noppert – De Ligt, Van Dijk, Aké – Dumfries, Berghuis, F. De Jong, Blind – Gakpo – Janssen, Bergwijn.
Two nice teams, exciting game.
Novocastrian66
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:43 PM
Comment #6Niafron; So is Stéphane Guivarch but he is not Alan Shearer. 🙂
The Taco Taker
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:45 PM
Comment #7Magic, I did indeed 13-12 – it was a right nail-biter, should have killed him off sooner I was 10-7 up but he brought it back to a 12-12 decider.
Raj, I didn’t mean it seriously mate but I thought as king of the FPL you would know why your score was wrong (it is correct now). Your captain was not Foden it was Estupian I saw that this morning when looking at peoples teams. Bet you wish you hadn’t made that change, I am above you now.
?
TFB, exactly or they could just use their eyes like I suggested, he can see the bloody stadium and figure out like WL toon did that there is no way that seats 68K and there is not 20K empty seats. I note they never corrected it either. The just leave everyone with the impression that there were 20K empty seats for an England game, which would be pretty shocking and a damning indictment of the WC if true, that is probably whey they didn’t correct it. That or plain incompetence.
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:52 PM
Comment #8Great result today! Also great to see Wilson and Trips playing for England, been a while since we’ve seen that in terms of Toon players! Pope may not get on the pitch but that’s the way it can be for a backup keeper…
Agree with earlier comments that for pure footballing reasons, it’s a total joke that the World Cup is in Qatar. It is though, so I’m completely behind anyone trying to make the most of it in terms of football and also shining a light on some of the issues happening in Qatar and also Iran.
Watched this one at home but gonna watch the Friday one in the pub for a bit more atmosphere! 🙂
G
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:53 PM
Comment #9Just saw the line-ups for Senegal / Holland match and thought Papis Cisse was playing for them in defence for a moment! Schoolboy error on my part.
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:56 PM
Comment #10Wonder if Maguire officially went off with concussion or just subbed off normally. Will make a difference for whether he plays the next game or not. As I’ve said before, I don’t think we have many top quality centre halves…who is next on the list? Dier, White, or Coady?
G
Nov 21, 2022 at 3:58 PM
Comment #11I would go with Coady, but Southgate will go with Dier if Slab-Head is out for a game?
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:08 PM
Comment #12G – Dier has played pretty well for Spurs this season and has more international and European experience so I’d suggest he’d be next in line too. Coady has probably edged him in the Premier League this season but I don’t think he has much experience internationally or in Europe does he?
Toon fans bad
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:11 PM
Comment #13This one is interesting as we’ll likely be playing one of them in last 16.
magicmac54
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:11 PM
Comment #14The Taker taker
Wow so you won 13-12 close match your mate must be no mug at the pool I would guess. Watching this second match this could be a closer match Taco ok catch you laters mate.
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:14 PM
Comment #15@G
In Soninké, Cissé mean “Knight” or “Rider”, and it was used first by a ruler of the Wagadou Empire who is credited of having introduce the horse in Western Africa.
Nowaday, in Sénégal, there’s some Cissé everywhere…
check the toastie
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:16 PM
Comment #16Well done Southgate for eventually putting five attackers on the pitch.
Who would have thought it eh, we are a canny team who can score goals.
Maybe Big Nose has learnt a but from coming the The Cathedral last few months.
We have issues at centre back but if we score 2 or 3 every game who cares.
Fingers crossed for more 433 or 4231.
check the toastie
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:16 PM
Comment #17Niafron – France most be worried with their bad luck on injuries?
The Taco Taker
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:18 PM
Comment #18Sticking with capacity/attendance ITV are saying the Netherlands game is only 3/4ths full.
jezza442
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:20 PM
Comment #19Some people have been blinded by the score ,I don’t think we played that well,some of the passing was terrible, the team shape was awful, players holding the ball too long when passing could have opened them up,a better team would have stopped most of them goals,and to concede 2 to Iran is a disgrace
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:29 PM
Comment #20Check – I think the lack of quality centre halves contributes to the need to play 4 at the back rather than 5. What’s the point in shoehorning Dier or Coady into that team at the expense of leaving out someone far better in an attacking position? My main concern is that when we’re up against a seriously good quality attacking force, our defence will struggle a bit. I just have to hope they play better as a unit that the sum of their parts.
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:30 PM
Comment #21Taco – Ridiculous wasn’t it? Something like 63k capacity but I think there were about 20k fewer in the stadium? Joke that the World Cup should be awarded to a country where the first England game only fills the stadium to two thirds! Can’t imagine that happening in many other countries…
carltoon
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:30 PM
Comment #22Couldn’t watch much of the game, but surely that was never a penalty in ten million years, I couldn’t believe they would give that, let’s see if we ever get one that easily.
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:33 PM
Comment #23@check the toastie
Yes you can say that… it’s already bad luck to lost his best player, we lost our three best…
In fact, most people are still optimistic cause we got many good players, an attack with Coman, Dembélé, Griezmann, Giroud and Mbappé isn’t exactly weak.
But when you look at the midfield and the defense, the problem is this team is not battle proven.
Sure, we can have surprise, perhaps Tchouaméni or Rabiot will reveal themselves as top class player, it’s their chance, we will see.
The Taco Taker
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:34 PM
Comment #24If you check back TDS the BBC commentator was wrong about the England game, the capacity of the stadium is only 45K. I was referring to the Netherlands game.
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:34 PM
Comment #25Carltoon – it looked like a very weird penalty compared to the early penalty shout when Maguire was being held. The only thing I can think of is that Maguire was also holding a bit but you do wonder if the VAR decided it would just kill the game if England were given a penalty so early…
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:35 PM
Comment #26Taco – Ah, I didn’t know that. Dodgy BBC reporting then…did they correct it during the game?
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:36 PM
Comment #27What i fear is the lack of leadership.
Pogba especially was the boss of this team, i know he is not rated in England due to his poor years with MU, but with France, when things were tough, it was always him who talk to the others and kept them in line.
The Taco Taker
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:42 PM
Comment #28No TDS, they did not which is what TFB and I were complaining about above and in previous article
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:45 PM
Comment #29Taco – ok, sorry I didn’t scroll back to read every comment, I just saw #18 on here. That’s shoddy reporting now to correct that.
John Carnivore
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:47 PM
Comment #30Snoop dog on the touch line for Senegal.
Toon fans bad
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:56 PM
Comment #31Thing is, I wasn’t really paying attention to the crowd so took that info as genuine when I heard the commentator say it. I probably would have repeated that to folk at work the morn in conversation about the match.
If the lads at work were none the wiser we could have had classic misinformation spread 😆
ToonDarnSarf
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:00 PM
Comment #32TfB – it’s how myths and legends are spread about things and I bloody hate it. The BBC has gone seriously downhill in their validation of information as they’ve rushed to get the information fast as that is what gets the most attention from people. You all know how much I hate people passing of unverified information as facts when it comes to things like transfer links or other news about out club and this is even worse, because most people will take it as fact. Like me.
Zhongguo Geordie
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:01 PM
Comment #33What a win. I know predicted 1-1 but after a few minutes bet my mate on 10-1 odds in his favour we’d win by 4. One of the sweetest 100 quids I’ve ever won.
Zhongguo Geordie
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:03 PM
Comment #34On a side note that fifa fantasy website is appalling. Put Trippier in as captain about ten times and each time I checked he was on the bench. Same happened trying to put Dumfries in.
Raj of Hailsley
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:08 PM
Comment #35TTT,
I thought I changed it to Foden before the Ecuador game, it obviously never recognised my change.
Raj of Hailsley
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:12 PM
Comment #36Thank you ZG,
I clearly had Foden as captain and confirmed it. The website obviously didn’t 😕
check the toastie
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:15 PM
Comment #37TDS – you did just pass some information on as a fact even though it was wildly inaccurate. You do appreciate that?
Too much trust in other ‘experts’ opinions.
Which then causes the odd person on here to question what your opinion is generally based on. And lets face it, you live and die by ‘your’ opinion.
🙂
check the toastie
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:16 PM
Comment #38Basically built in other people’s opinion.
Just saying. 🙂
martoon
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:16 PM
Comment #39I thought for the first game of a tournament we played quite well – yeah Iran were not great but in the past we’ve struggled against teams like this. Disappointing to concede 2 goals (the penalty was a joke) and some of our play was a bit sloppy but overall a very decent start.
I have to say I’m not sure how you can knock Southgate – he got us to the semi-final and final (only beaten on penalties) of the last 2 major tournaments, yeah the Nations League was disappointing but it is a Mickey Mouse event when the players are focused on their club competitions!
niafron
Nov 21, 2022 at 5:22 PM
Comment #40After all these goals in the first game of the day, this one is a bit disapointing…