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Bukayo Saka, Cody Gakpo and Gareth Bale (Source - Twitter)
The footballing carnival kicked off on November 20, as Qatar is hosts the FIFA World Cup 2022, becoming the first-ever Arab country to host FIFA World Cup. On Sunday the host clashed with Ecuador and suffered a loss of 2-0.
There will be 16 spots in the knockout rounds and 32 teams will be running for it. From each group, only the top 2 teams will advance to the next round. Ecuador are already on its way to cementing its spot in the top 2 as they won their first match in the opener.
There were three matches played on Monday.
England vs Iran
England began their World Cup campaign in the first group match against Iran as both are in Group B. The English side already took a 3-0 lead at halftime. Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, and Raheem Sterling were the scorer in the first half and put England on the front foot.
In the second half, Saka continued his brilliance and scored the fourth goal for England while the last two nails in Iran’s coffin were added by the Manchester boys Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish. However, Irani player Mehdi Taremi managed to score 2 goals for his team.
Netherlands vs Senegal
The second match of the day was played between the Group A teams Netherlands and Senegal at the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar. It was a very close encounter as both sides failed to score in the first half.
In the second half, Senegal were still looking like a threat to the Netherlands until the 84th minute of the match when the Dutch woke up. Cody Gakpo broke the deadlock and put his team in the 1-0 lead. The match was already bending towards them but Davy Klaassen sealed the win with a goal in the final minute of the added time.
USA vs Wales
The last match of the day was again a Group B encounter as Wales clashed with the Americans. It was the USA that dominated the early stages. They got the breakthrough in the 36th minute of the match as Timothy Weah scored a goal to put his team into a lead.
In the second half with eight minutes left, Wales scored an equalizer. Captain Gareth Bale converted a penalty in the 82nd minute and emerged to be the hero of the night. The match ended up with a 1-1 draw.