. Kolkata: Iran’s bleak situation was made worse by the early loss of goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand to concussion following a collision with teammate Majid Hosseini. Gareth Southgate’s squad cruised to victory.
Ten minutes before halftime, Jude Bellingham gave England their first World Cup goal with a powerful header from Luke Shaw’s cross. Bukayo Saka’s fine strike and Raheem Sterling’s graceful outside-of-the-foot volley from Harry Kane’s cross sealed the victory before the break.
Before Mehdi Taremi’s fine goal after 65 minutes gave Iran’s fans a real thrill, Saka scored his second. However, England substitute Marcus Rashford then scored another calm, composed goal with his first involvement.
After a strong run and pullback by Callum Wilson, Jack Grealish slid home from close range to cap off an incredibly dominant performance.
In extra time, Iran did get one back when Taremi converted a penalty after John Stones was fouled.
More off-field controversy was there during the game in Qatar when England was forced to abandon plans to wear the OneLove armband, which supports diversity and inclusivity, after Fifa threatened to issue players with warnings if they did so.
The Netherlands defeated Senegal 2-0 at the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar in their Group A match, with Cody Gakpo emerging as the star performer. Both teams were unable to break the tie in the first half, and Senegal emerged as a serious threat, making it a tense game.
The Dutch didn’t start to wake up until Cody Gakpo broke the tie in the 84th minute. The PSV forward sped past the defence after Frenkie De Jong’s superb pass. He headed the ball directly into the top corner after overcoming Edouard Mendy to get to it.
When it looked that the Netherlands would win the game, Davy Klaassen put an end to it with a goal in the final minute of extra time.
After beating Kalidou Koulibaly in a one-on-one situation and getting past the defence, Memphis Depay contributed to the second goal by having Mendy parry his effort. However, it just went straight into Klaassen’s path, where he hammered it into an empty net.
