England vs Iran live score, FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar: England thrash Iran 6-2

That's it for this one. We have Senegal v Netherlands coming up very shortly. Hop tabs to catch that one. For now bye from here.

This is the first time England have won their opening fixture in consecutive World Cup campaigns.

Keeping it rolling. 👏 pic.twitter.com/tnLlWTHLDZ
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) November 21, 2022

6 - England recorded their biggest ever victory in their opening match at a major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) and scored six goals in a major tournament game for the only the second time in their history, also doing so against Panama at World Cup 2018 (6-1). Assured. pic.twitter.com/OD0oNRxU5S
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 21, 2022

A couple of tweets before we sign off.

A comfortable and convincing win for England who were led by Bukayo Sako with his 2 goals, but it was Jude Bellingham who stole the show scoring the opener and constantly pulling the strings. Once the first goal went in, it was one-way traffic from there. Iran though were much better in the 2nd half and have 2 goals to show for it.

FULL-TIME: England 6 Iran 2.

GOAL! Mehdi Taremi in the 101st minute! England 6 Iran 2. Taremi takes his time with the penalty and calmly rolls the kick into the bottom-right corner sending Pickford the wrong way. Some consolation for Taremi and the Iranians.

PENALTY to Iran! A shirt pull off an Iranian striker by John Stones and the VAR gets involved. Asks the referee to have a look, he goes and does so, then points to the spot.

Sardar Azmoun is through on goal but what a save that is from Pickford who parries the ball on to the crossbar. Would definitely have been the 2nd for Iran if not for Pickford

10 minutes of added time.

GOAL! Jack Grealish in the 89th minute! England 6 Iran 1. With Iran holding a high line, Rashford finds Wilson who's just onside and he runs into acres of space and he has two to tee up in the penalty box, finds Grealish who has the easiest of tap-ins.

With the game done, Callum Wilson is on for Harry Kane.

GOAL! Marcus Rashford in the 71st minute! England 5 Iran 1. 26 seconds! That's all it took for Rashford to score. Three touches - first to control the ball, then steps inside the defender who was expecting him to strike with his right foot, but the third touch is a pass into the net past the keeper with his left foot. Talk about an instant impact.

Harry Maguire is down and it's related to something with his head. He does not look OK and is substituted off. Raheem Sterling is off as well. As is Bukayo Saka. Three changes and on come Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford.

GOAL! Mehdi Taremi in the 65th minute! England 4 Iran 1. Superb finish from Mehdi Taremi who is found in the box by a clever reverse pass and he smashes it past Jordan Pickford off the underside of the bar. No stopping that and the Porto man shows off his goalscoring prowess.

GOAL! Bukayo Saka in the 62nd minute! England 4 Iran 0. Lovely play from Sterling as he rides one challenge before passing to Saka on the right, he has three-four defenders in front of him but he cuts to his left and passes the ball with the goalkeeper motionless. Saka with the double now.

Nothing much to report as far as goalbound action is concerned. England dominating possession and looking for their fourth.

The resulting free-kick comes to nothing as Trippier finds the wall.

YELLOW CARD! Morteza Pouraliganji is booked for a late tackle on Harry Kane.

Second half kicks off and Iran have made three changes. Ezatolahi, Kanaani and Gholizadeh come on for Jahanbakhsh, Karimi and Cheshmi.

Few STATS courtesy of the BBC: England are the first team to score at least three goals in the first half of a World Cup match since... England against Panama on 24 June 2018.

Raheem Sterling's goal was his first in a World Cup. This having failed to find the back of the net in any of his first 9 appearances in the competition (14 attempts on goal in those games).

Jude Bellingham is the first-ever player born in or after 2000 to find the net at the World Cup.

Iran haven't had a shot on target and their best chance fell to Jahanbakhsh who volleyed over. Even though Iran are ranked 20th in the official Fifa rankings, there has been a clear gulf between the two sides. David Beckham who is watching the game was seen applauding the goals and the Three Lions are well on their way to garner the 3 points without much trouble.

HALF-TIME: England 3 Iran 0. Total domination from England after a slow start. That injury to Iran's Alireza Beiranvand disrupted their rhythm just when they were looking to turn it on. After the delay, though, England first hit the underside of the bar from Maguire off a corner and then Bellingham started the scoring with a lovely glancing header. Goals from Saka and Sterling followed as England imposed their mastery over their opponents.

A chance for Iran but Alireza Jahanbakhsh blasts the volley over the bar. He was found in space on the right but opted to strike it on the volley rather than take a touch. Had more time than he thought.

14 minutes of added time mostly due to that injury to Iran's Alireza Beiranvand.

GOAL! Raheem Sterling in the 45th minute! England 3 Iran 0. Again it's Bellingham with the driving run and he passes to Harry Kane on the right who crosses into the box, Sterling comes in and sticks his right foot, on the volley and outside of the foot past the goalkeeper. Unstoppable and England are in total command.

GOAL! Bukayo Saka in the 43rd minute! England 2 Iran 0. Again it's danger for Iran from the left, from a Trippier corner, Maguire nods it to Saka who lashes an unstoppable shot into the top left corner. Iran protest about Maguire leaning on the defender but the goal stands.

STAT: That goal makes Jude Bellingham England's second youngest scorer at a World Cup at the tender age of 19 years, 145 days.

GOAL! Jude Bellingham in the 34th minute! A lovely cross from Luke Shaw from the left and Belligham jumps high to glance a header into the top right corner. No chance for the keeper as it looped into the net. England deservedly lead 1-0.

ENGLAND HIT THE POST! From a Kieran Trippier corner, Maguire gets across his man and thumps a header into the far post. Jordan Pickford was already celebrating with his arms up as he watched the flight of the ball.

Saka and Sterling with good interplay with the former crossing from the right to Mason Mount who can only slice the shot into the sidenetting. Probably England's best chance so far.

The first shot of the game comes from England's Bukayo Saka but it's a tame effort which loops to the Iranian keeper.

YELLOW CARD! To Alireza Jahanbakhsh in the 24th minute for stomping on Luke Shaw's left foot.

That injury and stoppage took just over 10 minutes. So we will definitely have that many minutes added on at the end of this half.

Oh dear! Beiranvand is now again on the ground. He wants to be subbed off now. That's the right call under the circumstances and the second-choice keeper Hossein Hosseini is ready to come on.

Beiranvand was bleeding from the nose after that collision and the second-choice keeper was ready to come on but Beiranvand is a brave man, he gets up, says he's OK and changes into another jersey - free off blood and looks ready to continue.

Iran's goalkeeper Beiranvand is down injured after fingertipping a dangerous cross away from the right and in the process he collides with his own team-mate. The medical staff are now working on Beiranvand.

An early corner for England but it comes to nothing even though Harry Maguire went to ground and wanted a penalty. Nothing given.

England take the knee ahead of kick-off and here we go.

Interesting to see the anthems. While England's was sung with gusto and passion, not one from the Iranian team sung the anthem. One saw an Iranian supporter with tears.

Iran meanwhile line up in a 4-3-3.

England are going in with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The players are in the tunnels and here they come out.

Meanwhile Iran's coach Carlos Queiroz thinks that England have the team to go all the way: "What can I say about England? One of the top national teams in the world," he said. "They are serious candidates to be in the final position, why not a contender to be the world champion?"They reached a wonderful position in the last World Cup and Euros. They have a storm of talent."I worked with the generation of Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and David Beckham but this national team is really different because they have a realistic approach to any single game which makes them very, very dangerous."

England manager Gareth Southgate was speaking to the BBC just ahead of the game. Here's what he had to say: “We’ve maximised the time. We’ve spent the first part of the week exciting people about being involved in the World Cup, and the latter part, since we got here, on the training pitch. And I’m really pleased with the way the players have approached everything. We feel this is a strong team, a strong way to start, and great depth to come in. We want to be positive and play on the front foot.”

Jack Pitt-Brooke from The Athletic is in Doha and he has this to say about the atmosphere ahead of the game: "It feels like there are more Iran fans than England here today but it's not really clear yet inside the stadium. Lots of England flags dotted around especially down to my left."

Live visuals show the players out for their warm-ups.

With OneLove armbands banned by Fifa, they have gone ahead and approved an armband with the slogan 'Football United the World.' Fifa also have released a statement regarding this: "Following discussions, FIFA can confirm its 'No Discrimination' campaign has been brought forward from the planned quarterfinals stage in order that all 32 captains will have the opportunity to wear this armband during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022."This is in line with Article 13.8.1 of the FIFA Equipment Regulations, which state: 'For FIFA Final Competitions, the captain of each Team must wear the captain's armband provided by FIFA.'"

With so much controversy surrounding the OneLove armbands, England have decided against wearing them in their game against Iran. Here's more: https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/news-breaking-england-nations-back-wearing-onelove-armband-2022-fifa-world-cup

The major talking points of Gareth Southgate's selection for this game centres around him picking Harry Maguire and choosing Raheem Sterling over Phil Foden. Foden has been in great form for his club whereas Sterling has had a rough season so far. Also Bukayo Saka has been rewarded for his excellent form with Arsenal as he gets a first-ever World Cup start.