The first match of Group B of the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament between England and Iran, the pre-match lopsided expectations of last year's European runners-up England will beat Iran, but England in recent international matches has accumulated nearly 7.5 hours (450 minutes, that is, five games without a sports goal), so the Three Lions will be able to find a sense of touch in the preliminaries to become a major key to this game.
Iran, as expected, played a 541 defensive formation in the match, hoping to gain a few chances of victory through intensive defense and counter-attacks. England, on the other hand, played a 433 formation. For Iran, neither skill nor luck was on their side. Technically, England had a number of chances to attack in the first 10 minutes of the match, but when a cross was sent in, Iranian keeper Beiranvand hit a teammate and was unable to return to the match due to a serious injury, and was replaced by substitute keeper Hosseini.
With Hosseini on the field, the Iranian defense was in disarray without the goalkeeper's command. Maguire almost scored from a corner kick in the 33rd minute of the first half, and Bellingham's header in the 35th minute of the first half was the only goal in the game. The goal highlights the importance of goalkeeping experience, Shaw's cross, keeper Hosseini from the original position to try to press forward to block, but two steps forward to realize that they can not touch the ball, it is too late to go back to the line, can only see the ball into the goal. This goal is very important, which makes Iran want to win must score more than two goals, to get a point to the tie, but also to get a goal before. Iran was forced to change the formation to take the attack, originally, most of the Iranian offense for 3~5 people involved, and most of the other half in the backfield for defense. But in the case of the first goal, more people to go forward to attack, giving England more space, undeniable Maguire's header ability is very strong, but the Iranian defense in the staring at people often missed, but also paid the price, the second goal, is in the header of the top of the loss of the situation, and missed Saka led to loss of the ball. The game was now settled. Subsequently, a large number of personnel involved in the attack, giving England from the backfield to the front of the rapid counter-attack opportunities, and the Iranian defense did not go to create offside traps, so that in just three minutes scored the third goal, the first half 3-0 end, almost can be said to be the end of the game.
After the break in the second half, England continued to master the offensive, Iran is still not continue to find offensive opportunities, but as mentioned earlier, Iran's full-court offense so that the number of defenders is insufficient, coupled with the lack of experience in the defense made Iran 60 minutes into the second half, Iran opened the goal kick by England to the top of the fast forward, and the performance of today's Saka in the Iranian defense under the circumstances of the four-man stare-down, with the excellent false moves to cheat open up the space! Saka's excellent fakery created space in the Iranian back four, and he scored from a good angle. Iran was not without highlights in this match, and scored a goal in 65 minutes with the teamwork, but the poor performance of Iran's backline allowed Rashford, who was just replaced in the 70th minute, to score immediately, which was similar to Saka's second half scoring pattern, which can be attributed to the excellent personal qualities of Saka and Rashford, but it can also be attributed to Iran's poor backline defense. In the attack, many defenders were deceived by a fake move and many people blocked the goal, which gave the opposing attackers the space and angle to shoot, resulting in a big defeat.
In all fairness, this game may have been set up for a big loss in the first half when the goalkeeper changed, the goalkeeper's command of the back line and stability is very important, if there was no goalkeeper error in the first half and the goalkeeper could command the offside trap, England may only have a one-to-zero lead, then the outcome of the game is still unknown. The second half was a reflection of the experience of the Iranian defenders.
