FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – Belgium vs England PREVIEW
It’s a game where no nation wants to really take a part in, but it’s a game where there’s a chance to slightly lower the heartbreak of losing a semi final by putting on the Bronze medals. It’s Belgium against England. Belgium’s golden generation have broke through in this tournament, but unfortunately they ran into another nation who are building a dynasty in France and they just couldn’t get through them, meanwhile England took another heart breaking defeat at the world cup after blowing a lead to Croatia. This is the second time these nations meet in this tournament and this is the second time for both participating in a 3rd place playoff match. Will Belgium defeat England again, or will England put the Bronze medals on and have one last good memory in Russia?
BELGIUM
It’s been a remarkable tournament by Belgium, a heart breaking semi final loss, but a tournament in which they can be proud of themselves, eliminating Brazil in the process and only losing to a French team who have reached their 2nd major final in 2 years and there is absolutely no shame in that for Belgium. This year has been the second time Belgium are playing for a 3rd place, the other being in 1986 in which they lost and this is another chance at picking up a medal from the World Cup, which think Belgium will make sure to try and take home, it’s still some sort of silverware at the end of the day.
Now to summarise Belgium’s tournament. Belgium have truly been fantastic. They started off by topping their group with 9 points destroying Panama 3-0, Tunisia 5-2 and beating England 1-0 in a game that was pretty much meaningless where both teams played their B teams which we don’t expect to be the case this time. In the knockouts Belgium have had a rollercoaster. In Round of 16 Belgium were tested, they went 0-2 down to Japan and thanks to a magical comeback and tactical changes by Martinez, Belgium overcame that winning the game 3-2 and putting themselves into the quarter final where they faced what then was the favourites to win it all Brazil. Belgium’s golden generation probably played their greatest ever match by beating Brazil 2-1. They absolutely rinsed Brazil’s defence in the first half, they took a 2-0 lead and then held them off thanks to some magical saves by Courtois and solid defending in general. It was a big game in which Belgium’s big boys finally showed up in. However, unfortunately Belgium did not manage to go all the way. Belgium lost 1-0 to France in the Semi Final thanks to one lapse of concentration from the corner and that eliminated Belgium. It was a game where some stars didn’t show up, some did. It was a disappointing loss because Belgium still put in a decent shift and deserved to get at least an extra time, but one mistake and that’s how they got punished. There is no shame in losing to France, but you’d have to say Belgium’s golden generation might have blown their final chance to win the world cup unless they all come back for 2022. Overall it’s been a proud world cup for Belgium, probably their best ever major tournament, they’ve been scoring for fun, have had some thrilling games and they beat the mighty Brazil on their way. For Belgium capping it all off with a bronze medal would still be an incredible achievement.
During this tournament, Belgium’s biggest strength has been attacking football. Their front line have been great, Hazard has been phenomenal, Lukaku has had a solid world cup although he’s not scored in the knockouts, but 4 goals in total in this tournament is still very good, could still win golden boot. De Bruyne has been great too and Mertens whenever he played did decent. However, at the back Belgium have shown weaknesses, only two clean sheets those being against Panama and England’s B team. Other than that, everyone have been scoring on Belgium, they’ve been skinned on the wings especially because other than Meunier they don’t have any actual full backs, not one on the left side meaning Chadli or Carrasco has to play there or Vertonghen gets moved there and he’s not a full back. If you run at Belgium on the wings it’s the best way to do damage to them. But going forward, Belgium are near unstoppable, you have to defend flawlessly like France did in the Semis to deny them.
ENGLAND
Football might not be coming home, but it’s been a world cup that brought the passions for football back to England. England have achieved above their expectations and as heart breaking as that loss to Croatia may look right now, one day we’ll look back at this world cup as one of the best tournaments England have ever had.
England started this tournament by finishing second in their group. A group where they beat Tunisia 2-1, smashed Panama 6-1 and lost 0-1 to Belgium as mentioned in a pretty much meaningless game. In the knockouts, England have had an emotional rollercoaster. First, they were taken by Colombia to penalties in R16, a game where England let a lead slip in the 93rd minute and trailed in penalty shootout, but overcame all of that to advance to the quarter final where they got a little luck in facing Sweden, a team who’ve been dangerous but a team you definitely would prefer to face over the likes of Brazil at that stage. It was England’s best performance of the tournament against Sweden winning 2-0. A game where they were in control throughout the whole of it and whenever Sweden provided danger, Pickford saved everything. Unfortunately for England their hopes died in the Semi Final against Croatia. England got off to a flying start taking the lead in the 5th minute, however instead of going for the kill, they sat back and got punished and then conceded again in extra time thanks to switching off at the back. England switched off at the back a multiple times against Croatia and those types of mistakes get punished at this level, it was a heart breaking defeat for England, they truly believed that this was their year and it ended just like that. You can blame game management for settling for a 1-0 lead, you can blame stars not showing up like Kane and Alli or you can blame mistakes or just a lack of mental toughness. Either way, England lost, and they’ll have to settle for playing for bronze.
In this tournament, England have shown a lot of strengths and things we didn’t expect from them. First of all, they showed good attacking football, breaking their previous record for goals scored at a single world cup. Harry Kane has truly showed up to play this year despite the poor semi final performance, he’s the top scorer with 6 goals and will look to clinch the golden boot in this final game. Furthermore, we saw impressive performances from players who we didn’t really know much about like a year ago such as Harry Maguire, he’s been immense at the back, Lingard’s been solid, Pickford has made a name for himself for his incredible goalkeeping, Trippier has been sensational and just overall most of the team have showed up in this tournament and have written themselves into the history books. However, there were a few let downs. You can say England still lacked mental toughness when they faced pressure at times, especially when they got pegged back in the Semi Final, they showed moments of switching off at the back, they had a couple star players who didn’t perform too well like Alli and Sterling, really could’ve done better these two. And we can say that England did not really beat any of the big boys whenever they faced, they hardly faced any top class teams, really other than Belgium’s B team and Croatia their opponents were average/below average sides. But overall you’d have to say that England have made themselves proud, some players made a name for themselves, a few underperformed, but in the end positives outweigh the negatives.
Keys/Tactics
Let’s begin with Belgium. Tactically, Belgium love to play attacking football. They are very dangerous from counter attacks and set pieces with players like Kompany, Vertonghen, Fellaini and many more attacking those. They’re a tall team and a very skillful team with players who provide a bunch of different things to the game. The front 3 of Hazard Lukaku and de Bruyne is their most dangerous part of the team, these three on their game are pretty much unstoppable, like we saw against Brazil, but they can hide in big games too like against France with only Hazard showing up. Belgium play a 3 at the back formation, same as their opponents, they only have one full back in Meunier who is going to be available to play after suspension in the previous game. In terms of team news, everyone is available to play for Belgium, Martinez may rotate in this game but the star men are expected to play, especially Lukaku who is chasing the golden boot. Keys to winning this game for Belgium are they must of course show interest in this game, its very easy to get discouraged and uninterested after losing a Semi Final. The star men must show up and they must make sure to not allow England’s wingers to get in behind with their pace. Going forward, they need to just run at England’s defenders, we’ve seen them make mistakes and with players like Hazard, de Bruyne creating and running at this England’s backline you’d have to favour them to create a few goals. It’s a very tough game to predict tactically because no one really know who Martinez will rotate, but expect the star men to play for sure.
England are a team that relies on pace and getting the balls in behind the defence. Although Sterling has been poor, his runs in behind has been one huge positive for England, he’s caused defenders problems, Lingard is pretty much the same. England like to mix it up with their play style, against better teams they normally defend and counter while when they play weaker teams they tend to play possession football, play balls in behind. Either way they use their pace, movement and passing the ball to open up defences. In this game, we can expect England to be more of a counter attacking side. Their best bet will be use their wingers to run at Belgian full backs, Belgium’s biggest weakness is defending the sides and it’s something England can exploit, especially with wing backs joining attacks. In terms of team news, Trippier will most likely be out, meanwhile Henderson and Ashley Young are also questionable to be fully fit meaning rotation is imminent for England which should mean we may see the likes of Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gary Cahill, Eric Dier or Ruben Loftus-Cheek, just a few names that could potentially start in this match. Expect the main men to play including Kane who will look to clinch the golden boot. The keys for England is don’t get involved into an end to end game because Belgium’s attackers are simply world class and you wouldn’t bet against that front 3 of Belgium if you get into an end to end game. England got to at least limit Hazard and De Bruyne, they must get closed down at every chance. Going forward, England have to run at the Belgian defenders and try to cause as much chaos as they can on the wings. Kane has to perform much better than in the previous game too. It’s a chance for England to pick up their 2nd highest ever finish at the world cup and we believe we’ll see them leave it all.
Prediction
We’re picking Belgium to win this game. Belgium simply have more world class players and you could say they’ve shown that they can beat a big team, while England struggled as soon as they ran into somewhat of a big team. The front 3 of Hazard Lukaku and de Bruyne will cause all types of chaos to England’s backline, they can play pressure free now and you’d just have to give them the edge to dominate. We can expect a goal fest in this game because there really is no point for either side to sit back in this game. Expect both teams to put on a good show, but essentially Belgium have a few more world class players and game changers and we’ll back them to win this game 3-1. Belgium are simply superior to England, plus England will definitely miss a few key players to injuries. It all adds up to a Belgium win.
ODDS – Decimal
Belgium Win (90 mins) – 2.25
Draw (90 mins) – 3.75
England Win (90 mins) – 3.20
To Finish Third – Belgium 1.66 – England 2.20
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