The English media was unsurprisingly full of praise for Gareth Southgate’s side as they swept Iran aside 6-2 in their opening game at the FIFA World Cup.
There were five different goalscorers for England in the drubbing, with skipper and star striker Harry Kane surprisingly not among them.
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It’s a dangerous sign for opposing teams when the Three Lions have so many goalscoring weapons in their team, especially 19-year-old sensation Jude Bellingham.
Bellingham scored the opener for England in the 35th minute with a flicked header and no doubt added a few extra 0’s to the end of his price tag that grows by the day which, according to Transfermarkt, sits at $AUD155 million.
It was a performance that drew plenty of praise not just from the English media, but across Europe.
Spanish paper Marca described the teenager as “already a star of the Three Lions”.
“England were such a desert storm that they buried Iran,” Marca wrote.
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“Harry Kane, in assistant mode, conducted an orchestra whose best performances are played from the back.
“And doing that, there is no-one better than Bellingham. He is already a star of the Three Lions and his price rises several million every match.”
Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer led the praise for Bellingham on the home front.
“The young boy, can we call him that?” Shearer told BBC1.
“He’s not really now, he’s a man isn’t he? Bellingham. Oh my word what a performance, incredible.”
The Daily Mail’s Sami Mokbel described Bellingham as “the total package”.
“Twenty years from now, when we deliberate over the identity of England’s greatest ever player – there’s every chance we’ll conclude that it’s Jude Bellingham,” Mokbel said.
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“That’s no exaggeration, nor is it an impulsive reaction to what was a breathtaking World Cup debut here at Khalifa Stadium.
“It is just an obvious statement of fact; a realistic observation for an impressive young man who has the world at his feet.
“The box-to-box dynamism of Steven Gerrard, an eye for goal akin to Frank Lampard and the passing range of Paul Scholes. The total package. He knows it, too.”
Of course, the performance of the whole team earned the plaudits as England made themselves known as a real threat.
French outlet Le Monde noted the “English are as comfortable as Djokovic at Wimbledon”, while France TV wrote “England had made fools of the Iranians.”
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Former England international Jamie Carragher noted just how well Southgate’s side overcame the “pressure of the occasion”.
“We must go back to Spain in 1982, and an opening group game win over France, to see an England side playing with such confidence and excellence from the opening whistle,” Carragher wrote in his column for the Telegraph.
“It is not just that England won, but how they did it that is so impressive and refreshing. Let’s not overlook how outstandingly Gareth Southgate’s side dealt with the pressure of the occasion to outclass an Iran team that recently beat Uruguay and drew with Senegal.
“Those who suggest these games are easy as England made it look are failing to appreciate the emotional baggage every player carries into the first game of the World Cup, and that every game has the potential to be tough.”
Who knows how long the optimism among the English will last, but as long as Bellingham produces headline performances in the midfield, it doesn’t look like going away anytime soon.
