Cycle 1
15:00
11/21/2022
England
0
:
0
Iran
Paz Hasdai, messenger and voila!
Sport for Qatar, reporting before the opening match of the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Paz Hasdaei Video editing: Tal Reznik)
Group B of the World Cup in Qatar will kick off on Monday at 15:00 Israel time, with the England team hoping to avoid a sensation at their expense in their first game when they meet Iran - which is their third World Cup in a row.
Top scorer in 2018.
Harry Kane (Photo: Reuters)
England
Many believe that the Three Lions may go very far at the World Cup in Qatar, perhaps even lifting the World Cup for the second time in their history, the first time since 1966, hence the assumption that they should easily overcome the opening game against Iran.
The English, as I remember, reached the semi-finals in 2018 and in Euro 2020 they stopped only in the final, so the expectations from Gareth Southgate's team are very high - certainly after they advanced to the World Cup in Qatar with the best goal difference among all the European teams in the preliminary stage.
Although England will have to manage in the World Cup without the injured defenders Reece James and Ben Chilwell, in their first match in Qatar against Iran Kyle Walker will also be absent due to an injury from which he has not yet fully recovered, but Kieran Trippier will fill the gap and it seems that he will be England's top right back in the competition .
Harry Maguire, Eric Dier and John Stones will be teamed together in the center of defense and in midfield will be Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham.
Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane are expected to lead the charge.
James Madison is completely unfit and he will not be included in the squad against Iran either.
Harry Kane, it should be noted, finished as the king of World Cup goals in 2018 thanks to six conquests.
He is according to the betting agencies the leading candidate to do it again.
Before the game, Southgate confirmed at the press conference: "We will kneel before the games. We talked about it and we feel it is our duty. We believe it is an important message to the whole world. From now on we want to concentrate only on football - the World Cup is the biggest moment in everyone's career from us".
Harry Kane was also asked about the captain's ribbon that will be worn in the colors of the pride flag and its purpose is to express a protest against the treatment of LGBT people: "We all want to wear this ribbon.
I think there are talks about this with FIFA, but this is our desire."
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Iran is looking for a sensation and trusts him.
Tarmi (Photo: Reuters)
Iran
Iran recorded a very impressive qualifying campaign when they won eight out of ten games and conceded only four goals. They come to the World Cup ranked 20th in the world in the FIFA rankings, but it is important to remember that they changed their coach only two months ago.
Iran will be led by the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, who surprisingly two months ago returned to Iran for a second term - the first lasted eight years between 2011 and 2019, during which he led Iran to two World Cups. On Wednesday, Iran surrendered 2:0 to Tunisia in the last preparatory match of the two for the World Cup, and to the joy of Kiiros, Sardar Azmon, a Bayer Leverkusen striker who had slight doubts about his fitness, should be at his disposal And it seems that he will sit on the sideline, in any case, Mehdi Tarmi's place is guaranteed. That loss to Tunisia was only their third in the last 22 games.
The only one of the coaches that this is his fourth World Cup in a row.
Kiiros (Photo: GettyImages)
Trivia
* In 2018, England won their opening match at the World Cup in Russia, but failed in the task in 2010 and 2014.
Before that, she won in 2006 and 1998.
A figure that should encourage the Iranians?
* This will be the fourth World Cup in a row for Carlos Queiroz, the coach of the Iranian national team - in 2010 he coached Portugal and is now coming to his third World Cup with the Iranians.
This is the longest active streak.
* This is the sixth World Cup in Iran's history and it has never made it past the group stage.
They have only won twice and the previous victory was in their opening game in 2018 against Morocco.
The composition of the groups
Referee:
Rafael Klaus (Brazil)
Stadium:
Khalifa (Al Wakhra)
England coach: Gareth Southgate
The game setup
3:5:2
1c.
Pickford
6e.
Maguire
15a.
tenant
5c.
Stones
12 k.
Trippier
20 p.
Puden
4d.
Rice
22 c.
Bellingham
3 to
a show
10 r.
Sterling
9e.
Kane
Substitutes bench:
Iran coach: Carlos Queiroz
The game setup
4:3:3
1 a.
Byrneband
2s.
Muharmi
19 m.
Hosseini
13 h.
Canaanite Zadgan
5 m.
Mohammedan
3a.
Hajjaspi
6s.
Aztullahi
15 r.
Cheshmi
11 and
Amiri
9 m.
Tarmi
7 a.
Jahanbakhsh
Substitutes bench:
second house
Group
games
victories
draw
losses
gates
points
1
Iran
0
0
0
0
0-0
0
2
England
0
0
0
0
0-0
0
3
U.S
0
0
0
0
0-0
0
4
Wales
0
0
0
0
0-0
0
The second round games in the second group will be held on Friday.
Wales will play against Iran at 12:00, the United States will meet England at 21:00.
Click for the full broadcast schedule of the 2022 World Cup
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Tags
England football team
Iran national team