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2018 FIFA WORLD CUP: Belgium v Panama

2018 FIFA WORLD CUP – Belgium vs Panama PREVIEW




One of the best nations at the world cup meaning arguably the worst team. Anything other than a Belgium win would be a shocking result. Belgium are coming into their 2nd straight world cup with high hopes as their golden generation have hit their prime and it’s their biggest chance at winning the world cup. Meanwhile for Panama this is their 1st ever World Cup and just being in the tournament is an unbelievable achievement for them. Of course Panama will leave it all and will try to shock the Belgians, but it’s going to take a miracle for them.


BELGIUM



Belgium are coming into this tournament as one of the main contenders to win it and you can understand why when you just look at their squad. They have an incredibly strong all around team starting from world class centre backs like Vertonghen, and Aldeiweireld who’s actually had injury riddled season but has looked good recently. Also they do have Kompany, but he’s going to be out in the first game due to injury but is expected to return later but while he’s out he’ll likely be replaced by Ciman. Their creativity is also one of the best in the world with a mix of different type of creators in de Bruyne who can split up defences with his amazing range of passing and ability to score from outside the box or Hazard who can take players one on one, collapse multiple defenders and create space with his incredible dribbling for others who he likes to dump the ball off to. Finally Belgium have clinical finishers such as Lukaku, Mertens and Batshuayi. An incredible squad really for Belgium and talent wise they may the best team at the tournament. However Belgium does have some weaknesses such as lack of depth on the bench. They don’t really have that game changer on the bench, Chadli Januzaj Thorgan Hazard are good players and can create magic, but they’re just a level below that some of the talent other teams have on their bench. Belgium’s other weakness is full back position, they only have one legit left back in Jordan Lukaku and he wont even start as the coach Martinez prefers Carrasco as wing back, while Meunier is the other wing back. It’s an exposable part of their game for other teams and Belgium’s back 3 will have to be on top of their game to prevent counter attacks from other teams when their wing backs are forward. Belgium haven’t had great tournament success yet and their big egos will have to be managed for them to succeed but in the end overall Belgium have great balance in their team and are for sure one of the best teams, they will score lots of goals and are expect to start off with a dominant win.


Belgium had a very impressive qualifying campaign by picking up 9W 1D 0L, only draw coming up against Greece. Belgium won the group by 9 points and were never in any danger of being knocked out. Their main rivals were Greece and Bosnia, there were also Estonia, Cyprus and Gibraltar. Belgium put up a great show for their fans scoring an incredible 43 goals in 10 games and of course they stat padded those goals against Gibraltar putting 15 against them alone, including a 9-0 team. Other impressive wins from Belgium were beating Estonia 8-1 and of course a 4-0 win against Bosnia at home. Belgium were scoring for fun and won games.


Belgium are coming into this world cup in good form. In 3 friendlies they played their performance gradually improved. They put in a poor performance in a 0-0 draw against Portugal but then beat Egypt 3-0 and Costa Rica 4-1. Their performance against Costa Rica was ridiculously good and everyone looks in great form, especially Eden Hazard who is just destroying defenders at the moment. Lukaku has also showed good goal scoring form, Mertens and KDB look great too. The link up between Eden KDB Mertens and Lukaku looks very good right now and they are expected to dominate opponents. Coming into the opening game in the world cup, the Belgium attack should definitely prove to be too much for Panama.


PANAMA


It’s quite unbelievable to see Panama actually making it to the world cup, what an amazing story for their country. However as their chances at the world cup concerned, they really don’t have much of a chance here unfortunately. Panama is one of the worst sides of the tournament and it would take a miracle to make it here. Their team unity and fight will of course be their biggest hope to advance, however the lack of talent compared to the other teams is problematic, I mean coming into the game against Belgium the talent difference is just massive, same with England and even Tunisia. Panama will most likely park the bus in most of their games and will try to hit teams on the counter as they don’t have enough attacking talent to go out there and actually run at Belgium because they’ll just leave themselves exposed, creating nothing and will get battered. This is Panama’s 1st world cup. Only way they have a chance against Belgium is if Belgium put in a shocking performance and Panama’s players find a way to play above expectations. They’re here as massive underdogs, but hey there’s a reason games are played, maybe they do go and shock the world? All I know for sure is that their country will be proud of the players no matter what. A great moment for Panama.


Panama had a tough qualifying campaign. In the first group stage round they faced Costa Rica, Haiti and Jamaica. Panama qualified quite comfortably from that in the 2nd place below Costa Rica, but clear 6 points from the 3rd place, both loses coming to Costa Rica. Panama then made the final round and amazingly finished 3rd, yes they finished above USA. Panama had to fight until the end to qualify and had to win their last game to move up to 3rd so in their last game facing a tough Costa Rica side, Panama needed a win and a late 88th minute winner by their defender Roman Torres send them through giving them a 2-1 win. It was some incredibly emotional scenes in Panama, I mean qualifying with an 88th minute for your first world cup is simply incredible. Panama amazingly qualified with a -1 goal difference too and their top scorer just scored 2 goals.


Panama played two friendlies right before the world cup, not really doing much. They had a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland and then lost 1-0 to Norway. That just shows that Panama are not a very good attacking side, while defensively they held up ok, we do have to look at Northern Ireland and Norway and lets be honest they’re not very good attacking sides, they don’t score many goals either so it’s hard to make anything of the Panama’s defence. Now if we look further back there was a game where Panama lost 6-0 to Switzerland so it does show that these results can happen against a big team and Belgium could do that to them. Panama’s lack of talent will be a huge problem at the world cup and it’s unlikely that they’ll pick up any points, but as I’ve said them qualifying alone is a fantastic achievement already.


What to Expect From The Game


I’ve already mentioned that it would take a miracle for Panama to get something out of this game, therefore Belgium should be able to dominate this game. All of us pretty much expect the Belgians to put on a show let by attackers like Hazard, de Bruyne, Lukaku and many more they will prove to be too much for Panama. For me its only a question if Belgium will win, it’s more of a question by how much will they win because the talent gap is massive and it’s clear. Panama managed to qualify with a -1 goal difference, I mean it was a miracle. Would be very surprised if it’s anything less than a 3-0 Belgium win and that’s just me being nice because the numbers could get massive here, especially looking at the way Belgium dispatched Costa Rica in their last game. Expect Belgium to destroy their Opponents.




ODDS – Decimal (WilliamHill)


Belgium Win – 1.17


Draw – 7.00


Panama Win – 19.00



KICK OFF – 18th June 2018 – 4pm UK Time

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