Alireza Beiranvand getting treatment
Alireza Beiranvand suffered a head injury in the opening stages of Iran's game against England, leading to 14 minutes being added on at the end of the first half
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Two days into the World Cup, we are seeing a theme develop.

It's stoppage time. There is a lot of it.

England's match against Iran lasted an incredible 118 minutes and 16 seconds, making it the longest game so far.

Alireza Beiranvand suffered a concussion after a nasty clash of heads. It is part of a concerted effort by Fifa to control time-wasting by more accurately monitoring the amount of time the game is paused.

Injuries, video assistant referee decisions, substitution, penalties and red cards are some of the reasons the game is stopped.

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At the previous World Cup in Russia, fourth officials were told to keep a record of time lost during the game, something they had also been instructed to do.

"In Russia, we tried to be more accurate in compensating for time lost during games and that's why you saw six, seven or even eight minutes added on," he told ESPN.

If you have three goals in a half, you will lose a lot of time to celebrations and restarts.

A number of records were broken.

According to Opta, the four single halves with the most stoppage time in a single World Cup match since records began in 1966 were all on Monday:

  • England v Iran first half (14:08 minutes)
  • England v Iran second half (13:08)
  • USA v Wales second half (10:34)
  • Senegal v Netherlands second half (10:03)

There were some very late goals.

The most recent World Cup goal on record is Mehdi Taremi's penalty against England.

The second one came after 98 minutes and 17 seconds and was scored by the Netherlands.

The approach has caused a stir on social media, with some fans applauding the attempts to control time-wasting, but others feel it is leading to long games.

If you ever leave a match early again, you should think twice. You don't know how much you'll be missing.

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