Group B of the 2022 FIFA World Cup took place from 21 to 29 November 2022. The group consisted of national association football teams from England, Iran, the United States and Wales. Both England and the United States progressed to the round of 16 undefeated. England won the group, winning two games and drawing the other, while the United States won one game and drew the other two. Iran finished the group third, having won a game, with Wales finishing fourth with a single point.
Initially noted for unusually containing four teams all ranked in the top 20 at the time of the tournament, as well as two teams within the same sovereign state and other geopolitical conflicts, various incidents relating to Qatar's ban on LGBTQ+ symbols affected the games on the first match day.
Teams The teams were decided by the World Cup draw that took place on 1 April 2022. The group was set to receive one team from each pot, which sorted all World Cup teams by position on the FIFA World Rankings. The first team drawn was England, which secured qualification as a pot one team by winning Group I of UEFA qualification. The second pot team, the United States, qualified by finishing third in CONCACAF qualification. The third team was Iran, which won Group A of the AFC third round. The final team was not known at the time of the draw, as it was the UEFA second round Path A winner. Wales defeated Ukraine 1–0 to qualify for this position.
Group B was widely described as the "group of death" before the tournament. It had the highest average FIFA ranking of any group, and controversy given the political hostility between Iran and the United Kingdom, and between Iran and the United States.
+FIFA World Cup Group B draw Draw position Team Pot Confederation Method ofqualification Date ofqualification Finalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance FIFA Rankings March 2022 October 2022 B1 1 UEFA UEFA Group I winners 15 November 2021 16th 2018 Winners (1966) 5 5 B2 3 AFC AFC third round Group A winners 27 January 2022 6th 2018 Group stage (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018) 21 20 B3 2 CONCACAF CONCACAF third round third place 30 March 2022 11th 2014 Third place (1930) 15 16 B4 4 UEFA UEFA second round Path A winners 5 June 2022 2nd 1958 Quarter-finals (1958) 18 19 Notes
LGBT symbol incidents
Captains' armbands
England captain Harry Kane, Wales captain Gareth Bale, and several other European captains intended to wear OneLove rainbow armbands promoting acceptance and diversity during the World Cup; shortly before England's opening match (the first match to feature one of these nations), however, FIFA announced that players wearing these armbands would face "unlimited" sanctions, with a yellow card given at minimum. The affected football associations said they would not put their players in this position, criticising FIFA for the ruling. A spokesperson for Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, also criticised FIFA for introducing player punishment for the armbands. After the first United States match, and though the US had not been intending to wear the armband, Antony Blinken, the United States Secretary of State, described the ban as "concerning".
At the England–Iran match, BBC pundit and former England women's team captain Alex Scott chose to wear a OneLove armband while being interviewed pitchside ahead of the match, a move that was praised on social media. At the United States–Wales match, though she did not appear on screen, German ZDF broadcaster Claudia Neumann wore a rainbow armband and Pride shirt, later telling the Sport-Informations-Dienst that she wanted to set an example, lamenting that the captains would not be able to wear the armbands. England would change their armband to one that simply read "no discrimination". During England's second match, the Wembley Stadium arch, iconic of the team's home stadium, was lit up in rainbow colours.
Other Pride items Many Wales fans in attendance at their first match as part of the nation's official LGBTQ+ supporters group wore the group's rainbow Wales bucket hats. Women who had these hats, including former women's team captain Laura McAllister, were prohibited from entering the stadium with them; McAllister reported that the security officials told her it was "a banned symbol". At the same match, American journalist Grant Wahl was reportedly detained for 25 minutes when attempting to enter the stadium wearing a Pride shirt, being told it was "political" and being asked if he was British; he said that FIFA later apologised to him and security allowed him to enter with the shirt.
After the match, the Football Association of Wales confronted FIFA about the confiscation of the bucket hats, and FIFA entered talks with the Qatari Supreme Committee to discuss Qatar's commitment to make all fans welcome at the World Cup, also citing an incident of an American fan with a rainbow flag being harassed.
Standings
In the round of 16: The winners of Group B, England, advanced to play the runners-up of Group A, Senegal. The runners-up of Group B, the United States, advanced to play the winners of Group A, the Netherlands.
Matches Matches took place between 21 and 29 November 2022. All times listed are local, AST (UTC+3).
England vs Iran The opening match of Group B was contested between England and Iran. The two sides had never played each other before including in a competitive match. Many England supporters missed the start of the match due to problems with FIFA's ticketing app. In defiance of their government, the Iranian team refused to sing their national anthem ahead of the match, a sign of support for the Mahsa Amini protests in their own country. Many Iranian women, some of them bearing protest signs, were in attendance at the match, a gesture which by itself was considered an act of protest as women are barred from football matches in Iran.
The match was delayed for seven minutes in the first half after a clash of heads between Iranian teammates, goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand and defender Majid Hosseini. Beiranvand initially seemed to be convinced to continue playing by Iran captain Ehsan Hajsafi despite appearing to be dazed and taking his gloves and shirt off after he received treatment, drawing criticism from the brain injury charity Headway. After collapsing on the field minutes later, Iran used a concussion substitution to replace Beiranvand with Hossein Hosseini. England scored three first-half goals: Jude Bellingham opened with his first ever senior England goal in the 35th minute (becoming the first player born in the 21st century to score a goal in a World Cup), with Bukayo Saka (in the 43rd minute) and Raheem Sterling (in the first minute of stoppage time) being the other contributors to the scoreline up to this point.
In the second half, England's Saka scored his second of the game in the 62nd minute, before Iran's Mehdi Taremi scored with their first shot on target. England defender Harry Maguire was then removed from play after also suffering a head injury. Substitute Marcus Rashford, who had been introduced a minute before, scored England's fifth goal with his third touch of the game. Shortly into stoppage time, Jack Grealish scored England's sixth goal. The final goal was scored from a contentious penalty kick for Iran, awarded only after a review of a late-occurring foul was suggested by the VAR. Taremi converted from the penalty kick with the final score being 6–2.
The Iranian media blamed the "humiliating" loss on the protests in their country affecting their players' mindset, additionally claiming that the United States and its allies, including the United Kingdom, had manufactured the protests to disrupt Iran; though these nations comprise all of Iran's group stage competition, the line of blame is common due to longstanding political tensions. Iran manager Queiroz had supported protests by players prior to the tournament,Iranian men's soccer manager Carlos Queiroz says players can protest at World Cup within FIFA regulations then said that such protests were "not welcomed" following the loss.Carlos Queiroz critical over politicising of Iran team at 2022 World Cup after England defeat
GK 1 Jordan PickfordRB 12Kieran TrippierCB 5 John StonesCB 6 Harry Maguire LB 3 Luke ShawCM 22Jude BellinghamCM 4 Declan RiceRW 17Bukayo Saka AM 19Mason Mount LW 10Raheem Sterling CF 9 Harry Kane (c) Substitutions:DF 15Eric Dier FW 11Marcus Rashford MF 20Phil Foden FW 7 Jack Grealish FW 24Callum Wilson Manager:Gareth Southgate GK 1 Alireza Beiranvand CB 8 Morteza Pouraliganji CB 15Rouzbeh Cheshmi CB 19Majid HosseiniRWB2 Sadegh MoharramiLWB5 Milad Mohammadi RM 7 Alireza Jahanbakhsh CM 21Ahmad Nourollahi CM 18Ali Karimi LM 3 Ehsan Hajsafi (c)CF 9 Mehdi TaremiSubstitutions:GK 24Hossein Hosseini MF 6 Saeid Ezatolahi DF 13Hossein Kanaanizadegan MF 17Ali Gholizadeh MF 16Mehdi Torabi FW 20Sardar Azmoun Manager: Carlos Queiroz
Man of the Match: Bukayo Saka (England)
Assistant referees: Rodrigo Figueiredo (Brazil) Danilo Simon Manis (Brazil) Fourth official: Kevin Ortega (Peru) Reserve assistant referee: Michael Orué (Peru) Video assistant referee: Leodán González (Uruguay) Assistant video assistant referees: Julio Bascuñán (Chile) Martin Soppi (Uruguay) Juan Martínez Munuera (Spain) Stand-by assistant video assistant referee: Juan Pablo Belatti (Argentina)
United States vs Wales The teams had met twice previously, both in friendly matches: the United States won 2–0 in 2003 and the two teams drew 0–0 in 2020. The game was broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom, with the network announcing during the broadcast that its technical director, Roger Pearce, had died in Qatar.
The United States scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute when Timothy Weah scored after a pass over the top by Christian Pulisic (and becoming the second player born in the 21st century to score a goal in a World Cup, hours after England's Jude Bellingham). The United States had the better of the chances in the first half, but in the second half Wales improved, particularly after introducing substitute Kieffer Moore. In the second period, Wales had a chance to equalize through Ben Davies, but his header was saved. Wales would nonetheless eventually manage to score their first World Cup goal in 64 years after Bale was fouled in the box by Walker Zimmerman and scored the resulting penalty kick himself. After over nine minutes of stoppage time, the match finished 1–1, with the United States picking up four yellow cards, the most they had received in a World Cup game since their 2002 quarter-final defeat against Germany.
GK 1 Matt TurnerRB 2 Sergiño Dest CB 3 Walker ZimmermanCB 13Tim Ream LB 5 Antonee RobinsonDM 4 Tyler Adams (c)CM 8 Weston McKennie CM 6 Yunus Musah RF 21Timothy Weah CF 24Josh Sargent LF 10Christian PulisicSubstitutions:FW 11Brenden Aaronson FW 19Haji Wright DF 22DeAndre Yedlin MF 23Kellyn Acosta FW 16Jordan Morris Manager:Gregg Berhalter GK 1 Wayne HennesseyCB 5 Chris Mepham CB 6 Joe RodonCB 4 Ben DaviesDM 15Ethan Ampadu CM 10Aaron RamseyCM 8 Harry Wilson RW 14Connor RobertsLW 3 Neco Williams CF 11Gareth Bale (c) CF 20Daniel James Substitutions:FW 13Kieffer Moore FW 9 Brennan Johnson MF 22Sorba Thomas MF 16Joe Morrell Manager:Rob Page
Man of the Match: Gareth Bale (Wales)
Assistant referees: Taleb Al-Marri (Qatar) Saud Al-Maqaleh (Qatar) Fourth official: Ma Ning (China) Reserve assistant referee: Cao Yi (China) Video assistant referee: Abdulla Al-Marri (Qatar) Assistant video assistant referees: Redouane Jiyed (Morocco) Mokrane Gourari (Algeria) Adil Zourak (Morocco) Stand-by assistant video assistant referee: Elvis Noupue (Cameroon)
Wales vs Iran
Wales had faced Iran previously only once, a 1–0 friendly win in 1978. The Iranian team opted to sing their national anthem at this match.