Gareth Southgate has praised his England players after the Three Lions defeated Iran 6-2 in the opening game at the World Cup.
England began their World Cup campaign with a match against Iran at the Khalifa International Stadium on Monday and they cruised to a victory thanks to goals from Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka, who scored two.
Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire were Manchester United's representatives in the starting line-up and both players played a key role in the win, while Rashford made an immediate impact from the bench in the 71st minute when finding the back of the net.
ALSO READ: Man United play down Anthony Martial training incident with teammate
Shaw provided an assist for Bellingham to open the scoring in the match and Maguire assisted England's second goal, after coming close to scoring himself just moments earlier when hitting the crossbar with an excellent header from a corner.
United have three players in the England squad this winter and each player contributed to a goal in the opening fixture.
Southgate spoke after the game and he lauded the performance of his players in the emphatic victory, although the England boss was not happy at his side conceding two goals at the end of the game, which he warned can't happen again.
"I'm a bit fed up with the end of the game really," Southgate told the BBC. "Look, to win by that margin, to play as we did for the majority of the game, I have to be really happy. That's the way the players have prepared, they looked ready.
"We felt we wanted to be that type of team. They dealt with the game really well, it was a sticky first half, with lots of stoppages, but we were a real threat throughout that and our pressing and movement was really good.
"So I've got to be very happy but we shouldn't be conceding two goals at that stage of the game and we'll have to be on it against the States [USA]. It's a great start but we're going to have to be better.
"I think it was just a consequence of the scoreline [the sloppy end to the game]. We had 24 minutes of added time across the game. so it's a long time to focus. We just lost concentration and when we play at a slower tempo we're not as effective."
READ MORE:
