Doha - (AFP) - The England national team swept its Iranian counterpart 6-2 and achieved its second largest victory in the FIFA World Cup, Monday in the Qatar 2022 World Cup , in a match that "Tim Milli" started with a political message when his players refused to perform the national anthem in solidarity with the protests. bloodshed in the Islamic Republic.

At the opening of the second group competitions, Jude Bellingham (35), Bukayo Saka (43 and 62), Raheem Sterling (45 + 1), Marcus Rashford (71), and Jack Grealish (90) took turns scoring. Mahdi Taremi scored Iran's goals (65 and 90 + 13 from a penalty kick).

With this result, England, fourth in the 2018 World Cup and runner-up in the European Cup, achieved its biggest victory in its opening match in its World Cup history, and it is its second largest victory in the World Cup in general after its victory over Panama (6-1) in the 2018 World Cup.

The match started before the referee's whistle of a political nature, when the 11 players of the Iranian national team refrained from performing the national anthem during its playing, in solidarity with the protests taking place in the Islamic Republic.

Iran has been witnessing protests for nearly two months, following the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini (22 years), three days after she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to the strict rules of dress in the Islamic Republic.

With the players' step, the fans cheering for Iran rose in the stadium, while tears appeared on the faces of some.

Four days before the match, the captain of the national team, Ali Reza Jahanbakhsh, had indicated that the issue of whether or not to perform the national anthem was being discussed and that the decision would be taken collectively.

And the Portuguese coach of Iran, Carlos Queiroz, had previously said on Tuesday that his players had the "right to express" their opinions, but with respect for "the spirit of the game and the laws of FIFA... According to these principles and values, everyone has the right to express himself."

From the start, the England national team was the offensive pressure party, and its first opportunity was when captain Harry Kane converted a pass inside the penalty area that posed a great danger, but it passed Sterling without defensive control and Maguire fired it into the outside net (8).

And the Iranian national team received a strong blow when its goalkeeper, Ali Reza Peranand, came out with suspicions of a concussion after colliding with his colleague Majid Hosseini, to ask Queiroz to replace him after he suffered a nosebleed.

Indeed, the Portuguese introduced substitute goalkeeper Hussein Hosseini (20) after the match stopped for about a quarter of an hour.

After two fruitless attempts by Mason Mount (30) and Harry Maguire (32), Bellingham opened the scoring for the English with a beautiful header after a cross from Luke Shaw across the left (35).

With this goal, Bellingham became the second youngest scorer for England in the World Cup (19 years and 145 days), behind Michael Owen in the 1998 World Cup (18 years and 190 days).

And soon England, the 1966 champion, doubled the score with a beautiful goal by Saka, who prepared a header pass from Maguire with his chest and fired it powerfully into the net from the middle of the penalty area (44).

Sterling increased his team's lead with a third goal, after he completed a cross from Kane (45 + 1).

England completed 366 passes in the first half, which is the second highest number of passes in the first half of a World Cup match since 1966, after Spain against Russia in 2018 (395). As for Iran, it completed only 46 passes, which is the lowest since 1966.

Also, thanks to the goals of Bellingham and Saka (21 years old), England recorded two players aged 21 years or younger scoring a goal in one match in the World Cup for the first time in its history.

In the second half, the English yield increased through Saka himself, who fired a ball from inside the penalty area that hit the defense and entered the goal (62).

Tarmi scored a beautiful goal with a powerful shot in the goal after a wonderful pass from Saeed Ezzat Allah (65), but substitute Rashford put out any attempt to rise Iranian a minute after entering by scoring the fifth goal (71).

Substitute Grealish also added a sixth goal in the 90th minute of the match, before the Iranians were able to reduce the score from a penalty kick awarded to them by the match referee after returning to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technique, so Tarmi successfully translated it (90 + 13).