England - Iran

Probably all attention is directed to the England team, which is quite young and everything is still ahead. In the last EC, it showed that the balance in the team can lead to the title. If we look at the selected players, the coach's philosophy, it is a balanced team. I mean, Southgate likes to play with two supporting players in the middle, usually a 4-2-3-1 formation. This formation aims to control the flow of play in the middle of the pitch. As the last championship showed, the fullbacks also bravely and sufficiently high join the attacks. Then again, that's only possible because with Rice or Philips or the same plowing Bellingham, you can take risks.

Iran must be respected, after all, as the previous championships have shown, it is a completely underdog team. Plays sticky, positional football. England plays the same way, but the quality of the players is obviously different. Will we see a bus at our gate? I don't even doubt it, after all, the English in this case are in no hurry to sneak in from afar (which is actually in our favor).

You have to agree that Iran will be very difficult to counterattack, because England plays very conservative football, a lot of control, long positional attacks until a very good shot. I wouldn't be surprised if Iran has 0 shots on goal in the statistics graph.

Can England do 9? Maybe, but whether they need that much will depend on the timing of the first and second goals. I'm thinking 1-0 or 2-0 England win, with 6-7 shots on goal.

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