England have picked up their first three points of the 2022 FIFA World Cup after handing Carlos Queiroz's Iran a 6-2 drubbing in their opening clash on Tuesday afternoon.
The Three Lions notably changed their formation from their usual 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 for the match, allowing them to dominate the early proceedings and place the Middle East nation on the back foot.
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England had a penalty shout as early as the third minute when Harry Maguire was brought down by Rouzbeh Cheshmi during a corner, but the referee dismissed any suggestion of foul play.
The Manchester United centre-back was involved again in the seventh minute when his shot hit the side netting after a cleverly worked set-piece by Gareth Southgate's side.
The match then took a lengthy break following goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand's collision of heads with one of his own defenders, appearing to leave the player disoriented.
The shot-stopper tried to continue playing but eventually went off on a stretcher, with Hossein Hosseini replacing the first-choice goalkeeper in the 18th minute.
England's first clear-cut chance came from some intelligent movement from Bukayo Saka, who fed a cross to Mason Mount but the Chelsea star's shot hit the side-netting.
Minutes later, the European side showed their threat from corners as a Maguire header hit the post.
With Iran's resolve consistently being tested, England finally found the back of the net in the 34th minute, when Luke Shaw provided service for a glancing header from Jude Bellingham.
According to Opta Sports, the central midfielder is now his nation's second-youngest goalscorer at a World Cup at the age of 19 years and 145 days, behind only Michael Owen, who scored in the 1998 tournament at 18 years and 190 days old.
England then doubled their lead in the 43rd minute when Saka fired the ball into the goal after Maguire's cut-back from a corner.
Three minutes later, a counter-attack from Southgate's side saw Kane whip in a cross to set up a tap-in for Raheem Sterling.
Iran had a chance to get on the scoresheet in 11th minute of extra-time before the half-time break when they seemed to catch England off-guard, but Alireza Jahanbakhsh skied the shot into the stands.
Queiroz's side started the second half with a trio of substitutions as they looked to get back into the game, with Hossein Kanani, Saeid Ezatolahi and Ali Gholizadeh all coming on.
The changes appeared to make a difference as Iran began to ask questions of England's defence, but it was the team in the lead who still had more clear-cut opportunities.
With the game being a bit more even, Saka dribbled past Majid Hosseini and placed the ball into the bottom corner in the 62th minute for his second strike of the match.
Iran quickly responded with their first goal as a reverse pass caught England's defence off-guard, which allowed Mehdi Taremi to pounce with a poacher's effort.
Just one minute after coming on as a substitute, Marcus Rashford then scored with his first touches in the 71st minute.
Team Melli had a chance to pull one back in the 77th minute when Taremi had a view of goal but the FC Porto striker was not able to get his shot on target.
Rashford almost got a second in the 84th minute after dribbling past two Iran defenders but his shot was ultimately blocked.
Jack Grealish, who came on to the pitch to replace Sterling in the 70th minute, got on the scoresheet in the 90th minute after Callum Wilson's unselfish cut-back allowed the Manchester City star to tap the ball into the net.
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In the last minutes of the game, Sardar Azmoun was handed a golden opportunity to score but his strike hit in the crossbar.
The drama did not stop there as the referee then awarded a late penalty to Iran after John Stones was judged to have pulled the Iran player's shirt. Taremi converted from the spot to give his side a second consolation strike.
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