"The protest movement has overshadowed the football," said Kamran, a linguistics professor who lives in the verdant northern province of Mazandaran. "I want Iran to lose these three games."
Others insist the national team, which includes players who have spoken out on social media in solidarity with the protests, is representative of the country's people and not its ruling Shiite clerics. The team's star forward, Sardar Azmoun, has been vocal about the protests online. He was on the bench during the match, to the dismay of fans who said they were looking to him to make a gesture of protest on the pitch. Two former soccer stars have even been arrested for backing the movement.
Ali Jassim, a 14-year-old Iranian fan, said he was sure the political crisis was affecting the team's performance, as England went up 3-0 at half-time.
"I don't know how they can focus in a stadium full of so many people who want them to fail, " he said.
The Iranian government has tried to encourage citizens to support their team against Iran's traditional enemies. Iran plays the United States on Nov. 29 - a contentious showdown that last occurred at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Observers note that the players are likely facing government pressure not to side with the protests. Already, Iranian athletes have drawn enormous scrutiny. When Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi competed in South Korea without wearing her country's mandatory headscarf, she became a lighting rod of the protest movement.
"At the end of the day, I want the players to achieve their dreams," said Mariam, a 27-year-old sports fan and international relations student who traveled to Doha from Tehran to watch her first men's soccer match live. "It's not their fault our society is so polarized."
Mariam said a big achievement for the women protesting at home would be the right to choose whether to wear the hijab.
"But after that, women will go for their right to be in stadiums," she said.