Again several empty spaces were seen in the stadiums of Qatar.
How can we define the England vs. Iran from group B of the World Cup in Qatar played at the Al Kalifi stadium?
Very easy for the English led by Gareth Southgate.
With barely 40 minutes into the first half (including the 15 minutes that the game was suspended due to the injury of the Iranian goalkeeper) England had already scored three goals.
Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling scored for the so-called Three Lions. And, in the second half, Saka repeated on the scoreboard, Marcus Rashford, who had barely entered seconds before, put the fifth and Jack Grealish, one of the stars of Manchester City, he put the sixth on the board.
FC Porto striker Mehdi Tarami scored both goals for Iran.
However, although on paper the statistics seems like a boring match, it was a World Cup level match: injuries, political gestures and again, empty seats (problems with tickets were reported at the entrance) in the stands.
The violent clash of the goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand with his teammate that left him injured in the nose.
A game of six goals
The start of the match was full of political messages, despite being prohibited by FIFA regulations.
The Iranians started: in the acts of protocol they refused to sing their country’s anthem (which is a hymn to the Islamic Revolution of 1979), as a clear sign of support for the protests taking place in Iran against the government that have already left, according to some international organizations, nearly 400 people dead.
While seconds before the Brazilian referee Rafael Claus (a great candidate to direct the final on November 18 if Brazil does not arrive), the English players knelt as they have done in the Premier League to protest racial abuse worldwide.
After all this charge of emotions, the game began and it was favorable with the predictions: dominance of England and resistance of the Iranians.
But in a World Cup where everything is being seen, the first serious injury was suffered by the Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, who crashed head-on with a teammate after five minutes.
The match was stopped for 15 minutes until the goalkeeper was replaced by Hossein Hosseini.
Mehdi Tarami celebrates scoring added time in the 4-1 loss to England.
And it strengthened what seems to be an English curse: three of the four goalkeepers substituted in the first 20 minutes in a World Cup match have been against England (Villar with Paraguay in 2006, Hassen with Tunisia in 2018 and Beiranvand today).
Then, when England had chosen the right to generate their biggest chances in the game, in the 34th minute a play down the left ended in a masterfully headed cross by young wonder and Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham.
The famous Beatles tune “Hey, Jude” resounded at Doha’s Al Kalifa Stadium.
The Iranian team led by the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz could not show the defensive solidity that they had already shown against Argentina in Brazil 2014 and Spain and Portugal in Russia 2018.
And it was evident a few minutes later: on a rebound, Arsenal’s right winger Bukayo Saka scored the second and in the 42nd minute, after a burst from Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling sentenced the story.
The second half: more of the same, English rule and Iranian resistance.
Saka scored again after 62 minutes. But finally Iran reacted and through his star Mehdi Tarami, he managed to discount for the so-called “Lions of Persia”.
Marcus Rashford, from Manchester United, put fifth on the board and Jack Grealish, in a resounding counterattack, sealed the game in the 88th minute.
However, as we had pointed out, this game had everything, including VAR intervention: with only seconds left for the end of the 10-minute replacement, judge Claus declared a penalty in favor of Iran, which was confirmed by Tarami.
With this victory, England takes the lead in group B, waiting for what happens to the USA and Wales this Monday at the Ahmad Bin Ali stadium.
The “One Love” armband was not worn by Captain Harry Kane.
The fight of the bracelets
However, this England vs. Iran had already started long before Claus’s opening whistle.
And all for the captain’s armband.
For days there was a diplomatic battle between the English Football Federation (FA, for its acronym in English) and FIFA, responsible for the World Cup, over whether or not to carry the message “One Love” (One Love) with the colors that represent the LGTBI+ community on the bracelet that English captain Harry Kane would wear.
Although the FA’s intention to wear this armband (which it has done in many official competitions for the English team) had been expressed for weeks, it never received an official response from FIFA.
And it wasn’t just the FA, it was also the national teams Germany, Denmark, NetherlandsAmong others, they thought it was a good idea for their captains to wear this armband at the games in Qatar, a country where same-sex relationships are not only prohibited, but also criminalized.
The Iranian players did not sing the anthem of their country in the protocol acts.
The certain thing is that the official answer of the FIFA did not arrive under any official letterhead, if not apparently in a forbidden threat: if the captains of these teams decided to wear the “One Love” armband they would be penalized with a yellow card.
And for the Federations, who expected an economic sanction, risking the participation of a player in the World Cup in this way was not worth it.
“We are very frustrated by FIFA’s decision, which we believe is unprecedented,” read a statement released by the FA and the associations before the match.
It should be noted that if a player accumulates two yellow cards within a game, he must be sent off. And if he accumulates two bookings in different games during the World Cup, he cannot be part of the next game.
But this was not the only debate that preceded this meeting: the Iranian captain, Ehsan Hajsafi, made anda vehement denunciation of what is happening in his countrywhere massive mobilizations against the government are taking place in Tehran, which some local sources have already agreed, around 400 people dead and more than 15,000 detainees.
“We have to accept that the conditions in our country are not adequate and that our people are not happy,” he said.
“I would like to express my condolences to all bereaved families in Iran,” he added.
Netherlands suffer but win
Netherlands he was the favorite to take the victory in his debut in Qatar 2022 against the selection of Senegalbut the match was far from being a field day for the Europeans.
The 2-0 victory came in the last 15 minutes of a match in which Louis van Gaal’s team battled against an African team well planted throughout the fieldwho made an effort during almost the entire game not to give away a single meter.
It was until a brilliant combination at minute 84 in which Cody Gakpo He surprised with a movement in the area and with an extraordinary header he surprised the Senegalese defense.
Already in the last moments, in the 99th minute, Davy Klaussen scored the second goal thanks to a rebound that goalkeeper Édouard Mendy left at his feet.
Until before the goals, the clockwork orange was tied in shots for almost the entire game, despite trying to get closer to the rival goal with the speed of Frankie Dejung, Daley Blind o Vincent Janssen.
Senegal, who lost the scorer Sadio Mane due to an injury days after his debut, even achieved more shots on target throughout the game (4)but none of them worried the Dutch too much.
After Gakpo’s goal, the final minutes were shots in front of Senegal, but the attempts had more momentum than football.
The result puts the Netherlands as the leader of Group A, followed by Ecuador who won 2-0 the previous day against the host team in Qatar 2022.
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