England won convincingly 6-2 against Iran with goals from Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka (2), Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish and ensured that the Three Lions have had a brilliant start to the championship. Grealish scored England’s last goal in the last regular minute of the game. After the goal, he responded with a celebration in honor of 11-year-old Finlay. The two met earlier this autumn, after exchanging letters. Finlay has cerebral palsy, which Grealish’s sister also has. Cerebral palsy is, according to the Institute of Public Health, a general term for conditions characterized by disturbances in movement and motor function. Finlay wrote to Grealish and wrote that he seemed like a very good big brother to his sister Holly and that Grealish was an idol to him. – Me and my sister are so close. I love her so much. I’d obviously say I’m a good big brother to her,” Grealish said in a video published by the Premier League just over two weeks ago. In connection with the video, Finlay got to meet his idol, and a special promise was then made. Grealish promised to do a separate celebration for Finlay the next time he scored. Granted, Grealish had to say no to doing the worm, fearing injury, but they agreed on a special little dance. – You want me to do it? Okay, I’ll do it for you. I promise. But remember, I have to score then, said Grealish. And on Monday, the score came, with the subsequent promised celebration. Southgate: – We have to be better But England manager Gareth Southgate is not entirely satisfied. He says to the BBC after the match: – We have to be better. We had 24 minutes of added time in the game and our mistakes came as a consequence of the score. It was a long game to stay focused and we lost concentration. When we play at a slower pace, we are nowhere near as efficient as we could be, he says. – I’m quite fed up with it, actually. But when you win by that margin and play the way we did for large parts of the game, then you have to be satisfied. The first half was choppy with a lot of stoppages in play, but our pressing game and our movements were very good. We shouldn’t have conceded two goals at that stage in the game, so we have to toughen up against the USA, he says. The English players were pleased to get back on the winning track, after three defeats and three draws in the last six games. – We hadn’t won in six games, so it’s in the back of our minds. We are England. The standard we should have is that we should win every single game. Today was a real barrier to overcome, says Declan Rice to news and other media after the match. Gareth Southgate sees things to correct for the next game. Photo: GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP A situation from the match that is now being hotly debated is what happened after just ten minutes with the score 0-0. In violent fashion, Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand crashed violently with his own player and received a real blow to the head. Television footage showed a teammate splashing water in his face to revive him. After almost eight minutes of treatment, Beiranvand tried to play on, but was clearly groggy and lay down on the grass again after only half a minute of play. – I have never seen anything like it Only then did the Iran coach, the former Manchester United assistant and Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz, choose to replace him with reserve goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini. – I have never seen anything like it, it was horrible. This should not have been the player’s decision. The medical staff should have taken him straight off and checked him thoroughly, said Sky Sports pundit and former Premier League player Lee Hendrie. – Shameful of the doctors. The decision has to be taken out of his (Beiranvand’s) hands, writes Simon Peach, head of football at the Press Association. In news’s WC studio, Kristoffer Løkberg was just as clear and distinct. – Yes, that is where the problem lies. It may not be left to the player. Like a player in a World Cup, it is a third person who has to make the decision that it is not possible to continue playing, and it cannot be the coach either, because he thinks quite hard about the team every now and then, Løkberg believes. When the game resumed, it didn’t take long before England slowly but surely carved out the big opportunities. First it was Mason Mount who came close to scoring with a finish just wide, before Harry Maguire headed over the crossbar from a corner. Bellingham show But after 34 minutes the wait was over, when shooting star Jude Bellingham rose into the air and headed in his first score for England – and 1-0 was a fact. Talk about taking care of the opportunity in the first World Cup game of your career. – I told you that I was saving it (scoring his first for England)! It was a very good day for us, to score six is really impressive no matter who you play against, Bellingham told the BBC after the match. A short time later, the reviled Harry Maguire won a header in the box and headed the ball down to Bukayo Saka, who loaded the cannon and hammered home 2-0 with a superb shot from 20 metres. England wanted more, and in the 45th minute it was Raheem Sterling’s turn. He timed his run perfectly and made it 3-0 with a close-range finish from a fine cross from Harry Kane. Thus, three scores in ten minutes ensured that the British went into the break with a comfortable lead. The second half was a single big charmer stage for England, and matches were largely decided. In the 62nd minute, Saka made it 4-0 with his second goal of the day, before Mehdi Taremi reduced the deficit a few minutes later. Marcus Rashford, who was substituted in the second half, made it 5-1 20 minutes before the end. Jack Grealish made it 6-1 with a tap-in after some beautiful football just before the end. In overtime, there was a VAR situation when Iran called for a penalty after a shirt holding in the field. Referee Raphael Claus chose to award a penalty, despite the fact that it looked cheap on the replays. From the penalty spot, Mehdi Taremi was safe and fixed the final score at 6-2. England’s next game is against the USA on Friday 25 November. Iran face Wales on the same day. PS: The entire build-up to the match was influenced by non-sporting factors. First the much talked about choice by England to drop the One Love captain’s armband after threats of sporting sanctions from Fifa, and then the Iranian spectators chose to bow during the country’s own national anthem while none of the Iranian players, with the exception of one, chose to sing with. The regime in Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is facing some of the biggest protests in the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979, writes NTB. For two months, thousands of protesters have been protesting and demanding changes after a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman died in moral police custody after being arrested for not covering her hair well enough, the news agency said.
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England with a big victory – that’s why this celebration was very special for Grealish – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
