{"id":47508,"date":"2022-11-19T10:41:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T18:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=47508"},"modified":"2022-11-19T10:41:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T18:41:50","slug":"fifa-world-cup-group-b-england-vs-iran-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2022\/11\/19\/fifa-world-cup-group-b-england-vs-iran-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup group B: England vs. Iran [Preview]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Week &#8211; LONDON, <strong>The pressure will be on the Three Lions to start their campaign with a win.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>England get their World Cup campaign underway on Monday when they take on Iran in the opening match of group B. Gareth Southgate\u2019s team come into the fixture on the back of a poor run of form in 2022, but they will be looking for three points at the Khalifa International Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Three Lions enter the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0\u201cunder a cloud of negativity\u201d for the first time during Southgate\u2019s six-year tenure, said Jonathan Gorrie in the\u00a0London Evening Standard. But \u201cto their credit\u201d,\u00a0Southgate\u2019s England\u00a0have \u201cnever been a team to judge outside of tournament football\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having qualified for the World Cup for the third time in a row, Iran aren\u2019t \u201cno minnows\u201d though, said Dan Ripley in the\u00a0Daily Mail. Ranked 20th in the world, Carlos Queiroz\u2019s team \u201chave the ability\u201d to cause \u201cproblems\u201d for the Three Lions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will be the first ever meeting between England and Iran\u00a0in men\u2019s international football. They are in\u00a0group B\u00a0with the\u00a0United States and Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match facts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Who: England vs. Iran&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What: Fifa World Cup group B matchday one<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When: Monday 21 November 2022<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where: Khalifa International Stadium, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The stadium&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Located in Ar-Rayyan, west of Doha, the Khalifa International Stadium was originally built in 1976 and redeveloped for the World Cup. Six group games will be played at the 45,416-capacity venue as well as one round of 16 fixture and the third\/fourth-placed play-off match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team news&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>After being one of the \u201cshock\u201d names in Southgate\u2019s 26-man squad, James Maddison was the only England player to train away from the group on arrival in Qatar. The Leicester City playmaker has struggled with a knee injury sustained against West Ham. Kyle Walker has ruled himself out of the Iran game as he recovers from a groin issue, but said he will be \u201cready to go\u201d for the other two group games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran head coach Carlos Queiroz could be without Bayer Leverkusen forward Sardar Azmoun, who has not played since the start of October because of a groin issue. This could see Porto\u2019s Mehdi Taremi leading the attack against England.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Squads&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">England&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Head coach:\u00a0<\/strong>Gareth Southgate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Key player:&nbsp;<\/strong>Harry Kane<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>One to watch:&nbsp;<\/strong>Bukayo Saka<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Goalkeepers:&nbsp;<\/strong>Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Newcastle), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Defenders:&nbsp;<\/strong>Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Man City), Benjamin White (Arsenal), Harry Maguire (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Conor Coady (Everton, on loan from Wolves), Luke Shaw (Man Utd)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Midfielders:&nbsp;<\/strong>Declan Rice (West Ham), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Kalvin Phillips (Man City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Mason Mount (Chelsea)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Forwards:&nbsp;<\/strong>Harry Kane (Tottenham), Callum Wilson (Newcastle), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Phil Foden (Man City), Jack Grealish (Man City), James Maddison (Leicester City)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Iran<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Head coach:\u00a0<\/strong>Carlos Queiroz<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Key player:<\/strong>\u00a0Sardar Azmoun<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>One to watch:&nbsp;<\/strong>Ali Gholizadeh<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Goalkeepers:\u00a0<\/strong>Alireza Beiranvand (Persepolis), Amir Abedzadeh (Ponferradina), Seyed Hossein Hosseini (Esteghlal), Payam Niazmand (Sepahan)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Defenders:&nbsp;<\/strong>Ehsan Hajsafi (AEK Athens), Morteza Pouraliganji (Persepolis), Ramin Rezaeian (Sepahan), Milad Mohammadi (AEK Athens), Hossein Kanaanizadegan (Al Ahli), Shojae Khalilzadeh (Al Ahli), Sadegh Moharrami (Dinamo Zagreb), Rouzbeh Cheshmi (Esteghlal), Majid Hosseini (Kayserispor), Abolfazl Jalali (Esteghlal)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Midfielders:&nbsp;<\/strong>Ahmad Noorollahi (Shabab Al Ahli), Saman Ghoddos (Brentford), Vahid Amiri (Persepolis), Saeid Ezatolahi (Vejle), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Feyenoord), Mehdi Torabi (Persepolis), Ali Gholizadeh (Charleroi), Ali Karimi (Kayserispor)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Forwards:&nbsp;<\/strong>Karim Ansarifard (Omonia Nicosia), Sardar Azmoun (Bayer Leverkusen), Mehdi Taremi (Porto) Fifa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Predictions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>England are \u201chardly the most entertaining side around\u201d as it is, said Gorrie in the\u00a0London Evening Standard. Southgate\u2019s team are \u201cexpected to win\u201d and it\u2019s \u201chard to imagine\u201d the game proving much more than attritional. Prediction: England 1 Iran 0.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the pressure \u201cwill be on Southgate\u2019s side\u201d, said Ned Holmes on\u00a0RadioTimes.com. And this will \u201ccertainly suit their opponents\u201d in the group B opener. It just \u201cwouldn\u2019t be England in a major tournament\u201d if they didn\u2019t make things \u201ca bit difficult for themselves\u201d initially, but \u201ccome through at the last\u201d. Prediction: England 2 Iran 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up against the highest-ranked Asian side, England\u2019s \u201cspluttering frontline\u201d may come under \u201ceven more scrutiny\u201d in what could be a tough start to the World Cup, said Grey Whitebloom on\u00a090min.com. Prediction: England 1 Iran 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Week &#8211; LONDON, The pressure will be on the Three Lions to start their&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":47509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1801,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47510,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47508\/revisions\/47510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}