As he stood on the touchline at the Khalifa International Stadium waiting to come on as a substitute, Marcus Rashford was preparing himself for his first kick of the ball in an England shirt in 489 days, since the penalty that he missed in the Euro 2020 final shoot-out defeat to Italy.
Shortly after, when that first kick came, it controlled Harry Kane’s pass out to the right wing, bringing it into his orbit. Rashford’s second touch would take the ball back inside, wrong-footing Iran’s Ali Karimi. His third was the finish low and to the right of goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini. From the restart of play after Rashford’s introduction to the goal, it was a redemption story that took all of 25 seconds – easily the fastest of the night, but not the only one.
