England beat Senegal 3-0 to set up a quarterfinal matchup with France.
It was a passage of play that lasted 87 seconds, featured all 11 England players – 19-year-old Jude Bellingham more than anyone – and 35 passes.
“The most in the build-up to a goal at the World Cup on record since 1966”, according to Opta.
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Enough passes for us to even make up a word for it and put it in this headline (sorry).
Rice, Bellingham, Shaw, Bellingham, Shaw, Bellingham, Rice, Bellingham, Foden, Bellingham, Rice, Stones, Rice, Trippier, Stones, Dier, Shaw, Pickford, Stones, Shaw, Grealish, Bellingham, Shaw, Bellingham, Stones, Rashford, Stones, Bellingham, Dier, Shaw, Dier, Stones, Rashford, Bellingham, Wilson, Grealish… GOAL.
First things first, we’re not making a case here for England having scored the greatest-ever team goal at a World Cup finals on Monday against Iran – that title has arguably been held by Argentina since the day in 2006 when Esteban Cambiasso finished off a beautiful move against Serbia that featured 11 fewer passes than England’s but included an exquisite backheeled assist and some lovely movement patterns higher up the pitch.
One of the great team goals in World Cup history 👌
Happy birthday, Esteban Cambiasso 🇦🇷@Argentina | #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/qtwa0lE9ou
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) August 18, 2019
Nonetheless, England’s sixth and final goal against Iran is worth looking at again and breaking down into parts.
For those of you who were watching at home, rather than in a bar or other public place, you may well have picked up on the coaching staff bellowing “keep the ball” in the final 10 minutes. England’s players followed those instructions to the letter in the lead-up to Jack Grealish eventually scoring.
If it feels as though Gareth Southgate’s team are passing for the sake of passing at times, there is method behind the patient build-up play that frustrates Iran here and, ultimately, drags them out of their deep block, allowing England to play through them.
A passing and movement pattern involving John Stones and Marcus Rashford develops, encouraging both Bellingham and Declan Rice to make third-man runs. Callum Wilson’s act of selflessness at the end of it all is in keeping with everything that has gone before: a team goal in every sense.
It all starts with an England free kick in the centre circle, where Rice truly gets the ball rolling with a short pass to Bellingham.
Not content with having scored the game’s opening goal, Bellingham now sets about trying to break the record for the most consecutive one-twos at a World Cup. He swaps passes with Shaw once, and then again when he realises that the Iran players are continuing to stand off.
Rice is Bellingham’s next one-two partner.
Then it’s Foden.
At this point, Bellingham decides it’s time for some of the other England players to get involved. He passes infield to Rice and, right arm raised, gestures for the ball to go to Stones next.
Another one-two, this time involving Rice, circled and pretty much on the centre spot below, and Stones.
Rice opts to turn back and pass to Kieran Trippier, who moves the ball back to Stones.
You can imagine some England fans getting annoyed by a few of these passes but the players are conserving energy late in the game by retaining control – possession-based coaches often talk about this kind of passing forming part of the players’ recovery – and at the same time dispiriting Iran by making them chase in a long-since-lost match.
Eric Dier now receives a pass from Stones and moves it on to Shaw, who could slide the ball in to Grealish’s feet but opts to go back to goalkeeper Jordan Pickford – again, the sort of thing that frustrates some people watching the game… but frustrates the opposition even more.
The ball eventually ends up with Grealish, via Stones and Shaw.
England are toying with Iran here and in this scenario it is almost inevitable that the team not in possession will at some point lose either their discipline, through a rash tackle, or their shape.
Rice, arms aloft in the centre of the pitch, has called for the ball a couple of times. But Bellingham chooses to go backwards via another one-two with Shaw and that eventually brings Iran higher up the pitch, playing into England’s hands.
The ball is now back with Stones, who slides a pass to the feet of Rashford. That straight ball will lead to the goal in a moment, and it needed to take place deeper in the England half to entice Iran to commit players forward.
Bellingham is back in possession via Stones and flicks the ball to Dier.
Eventually, the ball ends up back with Stones again, and for the first time in this long spell of keep-ball– well over a minute already– Iran have several players pressing high up the pitch, which is exactly where England want them.
The positioning of Rice and Bellingham is interesting here.
Rice, gesturing for the ball to be played in to the feet of Rashford, who is just out of the picture, can see a third-man run opportunity developing. So can Bellingham, who is already on the move to Rice’s left. This is a natural part of that duo’s game, more so than for their fellow midfielders in this squad Kalvin Phillips or Jordan Henderson.
Now you can see the extent to which Iran have been dragged forward by England’s controlled possession. They have seven players in the England half. Behind those seven then, it is three versus three.
As for Rashford, he has Rice breaking on one side of him and Bellingham on the other – Stones shaping to play a straight pass in to the Manchester United forward was the trigger for both midfielders’ forward movement.
Rashford deftly flicks the ball around the corner to Bellingham, whose anticipation and athleticism enable him to get there ahead of his Iranian opponent before threading a lovely pass in behind for Wilson.
From being in a low defensive block with every player behind the ball at the start of this passage of play, Iran are now high and wide open, appealing in vain for offside as Wilson scampers clear.
Wilson, making his World Cup debut, could be forgiven for choosing to shoot at this point, especially as England are 5-1 ahead.
Instead, he picks out Grealish joining from midfield…
…and the rest is a close-range formality.
The big question, of course, is whether England are capable of keeping the ball like this in the later stages of matches against better teams than Iran – something that was a problem for them in their World Cup semi-final loss to Croatia four years ago and again in the European Championship final last year that ended in a penalty shootout defeat by Italy.
Perhaps the combination of Bellingham’s presence in midfield and setting up with a back four will help in that respect.
Either way, England’s players and staff will have taken a lot of pleasure from their final goal against Iran.
GO DEEPER
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