Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham are special. Gareth Southgate knows how to open a tournament. England were crucially brilliant yet vulnerable.
– and Iran were somehow deliberately conservative yet eminently porous. But this was unprecedented ease and confidence from an England team in the opening fixture of a major tournament.
The Love Train gave England the platform to reach the semi-finals in Russia four years ago, when nine of their 12 goals were scored from corners, free-kicks or penalties. England had an average of 0.9 shots on target from open play per 90 minutes at the 2018 World Cup – only Iran had fewer. It was stunning centre-forward play throughout – and it was actually Kane’s penetrating movement, offering Kieran Trippier a short option from a free-kick, which led to the long first-half stoppage when Alireza Beiranvand suffered a concussion palming his front-post cross away. That was a warning Iran failed to heed as they stuck rigidly to their positions.6) Letting the quite clearly rattled Beiranvand conduct his own concussion check was a choice.
It was a stunning display of conviction and class, with all the energy and drive of a teenager but the poise and technique of a veteran. Bellingham did not misplace a single pass until the 54th minute, taking his goal phenomenally well and leading the counter-press faultlessly. Iran could not cope with his intelligence or physicality and he played a direct part in three goals, different each time: scoring with his head, creating with his dribbling and opening up with his passing.
When the national team manager speaks of “form”, that does and should take recent England matches into account.
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