England hit six in World Cup opener as Iran show Fifa how to take a stand

England show they’ve got a bit more up their sleeves, even if it’s not under One Love armbands.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

England 6 Bellingham 35), Saka 43, 62), Sterling 45+1), Rashford 71), Grealish 6 90)

Iran 2 Taremi 65, 90+13 pen)

The effervescent Jude Bellingham sparked a 6-2 rout of Iran, to indicate an evolution of the team, and ensure everything went with encouraging smoothness on the pitch.

The problems of the Nations League were forgotten and rendered irrelevant. It may be far too early to talk about winning this World Cup, given how poor a crisis-ridden Iran were, but Gareth Southgate’s side have now announced their candidacy with England’s best-ever opening victory. This was why the players were never that bothered about recent results and they clearly enjoyed themselves here. Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka certainly had a better time than their last tournament match, both showing why they should be kept in the team, the Arsenal man illustrating why he has to be kept up front.

The problems for Fifa and Qatar only continue, meanwhile. It was the third successive day when this farcical World Cup’s many off-field issues dominated the agenda. Fifa’s pigheaded threat to punish teams with sporting sanctions for the OneLove armband meant the Football Association backed down, leading to Harry Kane wearing the bland No Discrimination” armband, but only served to make much more of a commotion over the whole subject. The governing body could perhaps have paid more attention to their ticketing system, given the breakdown of the application complicated entry for so many supporters. It was just another logistical issue in this tournament to go with all the more serious concerns, which were in part articulated by the Iranian fans.