This will be the first-ever encounter between England and Iran. The Islamic Republic have never beaten European opposition at the Fifa World Cup (D2 L6).
England have qualified for the Fifa World Cup for the 16th time. It’s their seventh appearance in a row, their longest streak in the competition.
England set the best goal difference in the group stage of European qualifiers for the 2022 Fifa World Cup, scoring 39 goals and conceding only three (+36).
England are the only European team to have reached the semifinals in each of the last two major tournaments (Fifa World Cup + Euro).
12 of England’s last 18 goals at the Fifa World Cup have been scored from set-pieces. In fact, 75 per cent of their goals in 2018 came from dead ball situations (9 out of 12).
Iran have never progressed past the first round of the Fifa World Cup, winning only two of their 15 matches (v USA in 1998 and Morocco in 2018). This is their sixth participation in the tournament, including their third in a row.
Iran have scored just nine goals in 15 Fifa World Cup matches; at 0.6, it’s the lowest goals-per-game ratio of any nation to play more than 10 games at the competition. They’ve only netted more than once in one of their 15 games, a 2-1 win over USA in 1998.
Iran are one of 20 teams to have featured at each of the last two Fifa World Cups in 2014 and 2018 – of those teams, they have had the fewest shots (47), the fewest shots on target (10) and scored the fewest goals (3) in the group stages across those two tournaments combined.
Gareth Southgate has guided England to the last four in each of his two tournaments as national team head coach. Only Sir Alf Ramsey can boast a similar record as England boss (WC winners in 1966, Euro semifinalists in 1968).
England striker Harry Kane was the top scorer in the 2018 Fifa World Cup, with five of his six goals coming in the group stages. No player has ever been top/joint-top scorer at two different World Cup tournaments.
Despite only playing six times, no Iran player was involved in more goals during the third round of Asian World Cup qualifying than Mehdi Taremi (4 goals, 2 assists).