Football Results

Even though this is a match for third place at the World Cup, we are sure that the Belgians and the English would now rather rest in their hotel rooms, than play again after they experienced great disappointments in the World Cup semi-finals. Namely, Belgium was defeated in a big clash against their neighbours from France with 1-0, while the young team of England was eliminated by the sensational Croatia with 2-1, but only after extensions. We should also add that these two teams have already played one match in Russia, and that was in the third round of the group stage, when the Belgians won the first place in the group with 1-0, while England eventually won second and thus qualified in the round of sixteen.

Belgium

However, we must know that in this third round match of the group stage, both coaches made a lot of changes in starting lineups, given that previously both teams ensured their performances in the round of sixteen of the World Cup in Russia when they celebrated over Panama and Tunisia. So they are now meeting again in the consolation match for third place, and it is possible that something similar happens, but we still believe that the Belgian coach Martinez will send his strongest forces on the field, especially since they played a day earlier than the English in the semi-finals and are therefore quite certainly more rested than them.

Otherwise, the Belgians had their chances in that first semi-final match with the French, but they did not use it in the right way, while on the other hand their opponents scored that only goal from the penalty. In this way, the French also broke this brilliant series of Belgians of five victories in the Russian championship, given that coach Martinez's players were better than Panama, Tunisia and England in the group stage, and then in the knockout stage they defeated Japan and the first favourite of the tournament, the team of Brazil. Of course there is a great disappointment in their team after they have missed a historic chance to finally qualify in one of the finals, so it will be very interesting to see how they will be set in this consolation match with the English.

Probable lineups Belgium: Courtois – Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen – Meunier, Fellaini, Witsel, Chadli – de Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard

England

As for the English, they are more likely to be even more sad than the Belgians this time, since they were valid for a mild favourite in that semi-final match with the Croatians, and certainly their appetites grew further after they took the lead already in the fifth minute thanks to a great goal by Trippier from the free throw. After that, coach Southgate's players had several more favourable opportunities to double this advantage, but did not make the best use of this due to a lack of concentration after receiving a goal, so they all went on a break with 1-0 for England.

And then, in the second part, the Croatians played much better, and Persic scored an equalizing goal in the 68th minute of the match, which in fact only further disrupted the English, because they had been completely in a subordinate position by the end of the regular part of the match. And when it was expected that the considerably younger team of England would still exploit this obvious tiredness of their rivals in the extensions, quite the opposite happened, so the Croatians reacted a little more determinedly, which eventually paid off in the 109th minute when they set the final score for 2-1 after a goal by Mandzukic. Of course this was a great shock for the favoured England, who probably will not recover from this for a long time, so coach Southgate announced that he would now make several changes in the starting line in this consolation match against Belgium.

Probable lineups England: Pickford – Walker, Stones, Maguire – Trippier, Lingard, Dier, Delph, Rose – Rashford, Kane

Verdict:

Pick: Asian Handicap 0 Belgium 1.65 - 65/100 @1XBet