England v Iran moments missed: Scotland jibe, surprise weather, Southgate gesture, what ex-Arsenal star did
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England produced an impressive display to beat Iran 6-2 in their first group game at the World Cup. The Three Lions took a 3-0 lead in the first half thanks to strikes from Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling.
Saka got his second before substitutes Rashford and Grealish added to an already encouraging scoreline. Mehdi Taremi scored for Iran when England were five up before he added a last minute penalty to somewhat flatter the Iranian fans at the Khalifa International Stadium.
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Hide AdThis is only the second time in 16 World Cup outings that England have scored more than five goals in an opening game. Here are five things you might not have seen on television.
Southgate quickly goes to applaud travelling fans
England fans have had to deal with changes at the last minute from beer being banned and FIFA stopping the FA and team from wearing rainbow armed bands to show support for LGBTQ communities. But they would have been delighted with their team's performance on the pitch and the manager was quick to show respect to the fans by going to the fans to applaud them immediately after the game.
England fans singing are you Scotland in disguise to Iranian team
When England’s fifth goal went in, the travelling English fans could not hide their delight and started singing “Are you Scotland in disguise?' to the Iranian team who at some point looked like they were out of their depth.
England looked really good here and it will be interesting to see how far they can go given they did not have to push it to the next level to get this result.
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Hide AdAlex Scott wearing the rainbow armband
Fifa decided at the last minute that they would penalise any player who wore the rainbow armband and so all the seven countries who were planning to wear them including England had to take a step back as that was a game changer at the last minute.
But there was no stopping Alex Scott, the former Lionesses star wore her rainbow armband when previewing the game which lifted spirits. That was encouraging to see especially given how stifled the entire team felt about not being able to wear the armbands.
27 degrees outside but inside the stadium felt like 15 degrees
So much has been made about the heat in Qatar but they have these massive air conditioners in the stadium that drop the temperatures. Some journalists who were sitting at the upper side of the media box had to get their extra clothes on as it felt as if we were back home at times. Generally the stadium was quite beautiful, something closer to what Marseille have in the Velodrome.
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