England head coach Gareth Southgate reacted emotionally to two missed goals from Iran (6-2) in the first round group stage match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
I'm a bit fed up with the end of it, really. To win by that margin and play as we did, we have to be happy. I've got to be happy but we shouldn't be conceding two goals at that stage of the game and we'll have to be right on our game against the [United] States. It's a great start but we're going to have to be better.
Teams of England and Iran played the longest match in the history of the World Cup. Brazilian head referee Raphael Claus added 14 minutes to the first half because of a stoppage in time related to assisting Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. The goalkeeper broke his nose in a collision and lost consciousness. He could leave the field only on a stretcher.
The referee added ten more minutes to the second half, bringing the total amount of added time in the match to 24 minutes. Nevertheless, the teams left the field after the final whistle in the 118 minute. Thus, the England-Iran match became the longest in the history of the World Cup excluding games with overtime.
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