Mayes Yousef
At first glance, people may think England’s opening match at the FIFA World Cup 2022 against Iran is a rather routine one.
The Three Lions blew through the Qatar 2022 qualifiers and they made it to the semifinals in Russia 2018. They also made it all the way to the final of last year’s rearranged Euro 2020 tournament.
Self-assurance is high for Gareth Southgate’s team, but they have one obstacle in their way; Iran’s had an impressive qualifying campaign of their own. Iran’s also currently sitting in FIFA’s 20th ranking, higher than Serbia, Morocco, and Japan.
Far from idyllic, Iran had a change in coach just two months before the start of the tournament. However, Portuguese Carlos Queiroz had a pretty good idea of what he was signing up for back in September, when he agreed to return to his previous role as coach of the Iran national team, three years after ending his initial eight-year period in-charge.
This will be Queiroz fourth consecutive World Cup as a national team head coach. He also steered Egypt to an African Cup of Nations final, earlier this year.
Iran’s last friendly before the World Cup saw them lose 2-0 to Tunisia, however, Queiroz said this will make his team better prepared for the clash with England.
Iran have scored just nine goals in 15 FIFA World Cup matches; whereas England’s scored an impressive 91 goals since they began participating in the tournament back in 1950. Their best performance was winning the cup in the 1966 tournament held in England; they also finished in fourth place in Italy 1990, and in Russia 2018. The team have also reached the quarter-finals on nine occasions, the latest of which was at Russia 2018.
England begin their journey to win the World Cup title for the second time, at 16:00 Doha time, at Khalifa International Stadium. Players to watch for are England’s Harry Kane and Iran’s Mehdi Taremi.
England line-up: Pickford; Trippier, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Bellingham, Rice, Mount; Saka, Kane (c), Sterling
Iran line-up: Beiranvand; Moharrami, Pouraliganji, Hosseini, Mohammedi; Nourollahi, Cheshmi, Hajsafi; Jahanbakhsh, Taremi, Karimi.