England demolish Iran as Bukayo Saka announces World Cup arrival

Let's face it, from the moment the prospect of Harry Kane being booked for something so egregious as wearing a captain's armband in support of LGBTQ+ people arose, it felt fairly inevitable what the outcome was going to be.

There has been plenty of noise - from the England camp and others - around how Qatar's archaic laws on homosexuality were at odds with their own values, but it all falls a bit flat when even the smallest protest is swiftly abandoned in the face of any material consequences.

The optics around Kane and his contemporaries accepting yellow cards for simply taking a stand against discrimination would have been a powerful and important moment in football history.

Instead, there was a meek FA climbdown from what already felt like the bare minimum and England's players took to the pitch at the Khalifa Stadium with this competition's moral murkiness once more at the forefront of discussion.

Once the whistle blew, however, they delivered a clinical (for Scotland fans, read 'alarming') performance that simply swept Iran side.

They had only lost twice in their last 21 outings but they had no real answer as Gareth Southgate's plentiful attacking weaponry ran riot.

Bukayo Saka, in particular, shone as he bids to write a brighter follow-up chapter in his international career than the one that ended with a decisive penalty shootout miss in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley.

The Arsenal forward, still only 21, produced two fine finishes, one in either half, to help ease England to as comfortable an opening fixture as Southgate could possibly have hoped for. 

Jude Bellingham registered his first international goal, while there were also impressive strikes from Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford before Jack Grealish added additional gloss.

Mehdi Taremi did pull one back for Iran at 4-0, but it was a brief blip in what was otherwise one way traffic.

The game itself got off to a bit of a false start.

Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand went crumpling to the floor following a quite brutal collision with his own man, Majid Hosseini, as he bravely tipped away at a cross Sterling was waiting to nod in at the back post.

A lengthy stoppage followed, at the end of which Beiranvand was incredibly allowed to remain on the pitch despite quite clearly appearing dazed and in considerable pain.

That he eventually took the decision to remove himself from proceedings raises another uncomfortable talking point, in a World Cup already chock full of them despite being less than two days old, around football's concussion protocols.

Alireza Beiranvand goes down injured (Image: PA)

Beiranvand's replacement, Hossein Hosseini could do little about the Bellingham opener which set his first task as picking the ball out of the back of the net.

England had maintained a decent rhythm post-stoppage and Harry Maguire's header crashing off the crossbar moments earlier was a warning Iran did not heed.

They allowed Luke Shaw time to look up and deliver from the left and Bellingham timed his to perfection, lofting a delicate header beyond a motionless Hosseini.

Pre-tournament verdicts on the Iranians involved several variations on "stodgey" and "hard to beat"; predictions that would've collapsed in record time had there not been a stoppage that required 14 extra first-half minutes be played.

By the time we entered that bumper period of added time, the game was over.

The much-maligned Maguire spent much of the opening period impersonating a wrecking ball in the Iran box and it was his presence that helped tee up Saka for a sumptuously taken second.

The Manchester United defender nodded down a corner and Saka quickly readjusted to smash in off the crossbar.

Iran were quickly coming apart at the seams, their only meaningful contribution being a few heavy tackles on Shaw and Mason Mount.

England, by contrast, were brimming with confidence.

Harry Kane had been a relatively peripheral figure but after being released down the right by Bellingham, he produced a pinpoint cross for Sterling to volley home the killer blow.

Southgate resisted the urge to make energy-saving changes at the interval and was vindicated as his side picked up pretty much exactly where they'd left off following the restart.

Saka, of whom Iran were visibly terrified, was allowed to jink inside onto his left foot to gratefully help himself to a double and England's fourth.

Their stranglehold on proceedings was briefly disrupted by Taremi escaping the attentions of Maguire to smash in off Jordan Pickford's crossbar, the centre-back departing immediately after having seemingly taken a bang on the head moments prior.

Bukayo Saka celebrates (Image: PA)

There's an impressive depth to the England squad, it must be said, with Southgate afforded the luxury of introducing Rashford, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Eric Dier all at once.

Rashford - another who suffered spot-kick heartache at the Euros - wasted no time in following Saka's lead, turning Majid Housseini inside out to open up the goal for a simple finish.

By the time Grealish tapped home Callum Wilson's cutback, it had long ceased to be a contest.

Another 10 minutes of stoppage time did provide time for Iran to salvage another consolation from the penalty spot, denying England a record-equalling tournament victory.

Nonetheless, this was Southgate's ninth win from 15 on the big stage, one that was earned with a minimum of fuss and which they'll view as an early marker as the rest of the heavy hitters limber up to flex their own muscles.

Off the back of a Nations League campaign that ended in a rather embarrassing relegation from the top section, this was the perfect antidote to the murmurings of discontent around Southgate's leadership.

There will be tougher tests to come, of course, but England have historically made heavy weather of their first tournament outings.

This, however, was nothing other than a demolition.

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