International Magpie Roundup: Nov. 21

The World Cup has arrived and there are six Magpies playing in the group stages: Kieran Trippier, Nick Pope, and Callum Wilson for England, Garang Kuol is with Australia, Fabian Schar is part of the Swiss team, and Bruno plays for Brazil.

Here’s a recap of all that went on Monday, Nov. 21, with more updates to come in the following days as games keep getting played with the WC kicking off next Sunday.

Photo by Berengui/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Callum Wilson & Kieran Trippier (England)

Match: ENG vs Iran (World Cup)

The Three Lions couldn’t have had a better debut in Qatar facing Iran in the first game of the World Cup group stage. The lads blasted Iran by a final score of 6-2 with Jude Bellingham opening the game with just 35 minutes on the clock.

What Jude started, four others followed: Bukayo Saka added the second, and Raheem Sterling—into a freakish 14-minute added-time period at the end of the first half—put up the third right before half-time.

Iran made three changes coming off the break while England waited until the 70th minute to make their first substitution after Harry Maguire got banged up. Saka had put the 4-0 up by then with Mehdi Taremi bagging one for the Iran team.

Marcus Rashford (71st) and Jack Grealish (90th) closed the game with one goal each but Mehdi Taremi, for the second time on Monday, scored the last goal of the game with 13 minutes of added time already gone in the second half. Yes, that’s 27 extra minutes played on yesterday’s game, pretty much a third of a full football game.

Kieran Trippier was incredibly great and played the full 90 minutes. In that time, Trippier completed 73 of 88 attempted passes including one connecting with a key pass through the game. He won all eight of the duels he entered (five on the ground, five on the air) while also intercepting one ball and succeeding at five attempted tackles.

Callum Wilson entered the game late in the 76th minute... but the bulky added time at the end of the affair allowed him to get 14 minutes of regular playing time plus 14 more of added time for a good half-hour of cardio.