Jude Bellingham headed Gareth Southgate’s side in front with 35 minutes on the clock, with Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling adding to the lead before the interval. Saka added another fine goal just past the hour mark, with substitute Marcus Rashford scoring England’s fifth after Mehdi Taremi had pulled one back for Iran, and fellow replacement Jack Grealish adding a sixth, before Taremi’s last-gasp penalty.

England took control of the game in a first half that lasted nearly an hour after a head injury to Iran’s Alireza Beiranvand. The goalkeeper was hurt after colliding with his teammate, Majid Hosseini, having tipped a Harry Kane cross away from danger inside the first 10 minutes.

After a lengthy delay, Beiranvand was replaced by Hossein Hosseini and England quickly got on the front foot, with Mason Mount firing wide and Harry Maguire’s header coming back off the bar.

But it was Bellingham who made the breakthrough, heading home from Luke Shaw’s cross for his first England goal. Saka doubled lead in style seven minutes later, firing into the top corner from Maguire’s nod-down at a corner. In the first minute of those 14 added to the first half, Sterling turned in Harry Kane’s cross at the near post to underline England’s dominance.

The Iran manager, Carlos Queiroz, made three changes at half-time as he looked to shore up his defence – but they were caught cold again after 62 minutes as Saka cut in from the right, dribbled past static defenders and rolled the ball beyond Hosseini.

Tehrami scored a consolation with Iran’s first real effort on goal, crashing a shot beyond Jordan Pickford. Rashford came on and scored with virtually his first touch, finishing from close range before Grealish added a sixth in the final minute to complete an excellent afternoon’s work for England. VAR then handed Iran a penalty deep into added time, which Taremi rolled home.