Football Results

Belgium was expected to qualify in the round of sixteen, and many believe they will manage to do far more than this round in the World Cup, while the team of Japan is a bit of a surprise, which had one very unpleasant group in which they were the outsiders, but still managed to win second place and win the knockout stage. Belgium made all three wins, and expectedly the toughest triumph was against England in the third round. Japan started with a win, and then they played a draw and lost once, which did not cost them too much. Just over half a year ago, Belgium has celebrated in a friendly match against Japan with 1-0.

Belgium

Belgium has without any problems and in a great way qualified in the round of sixteen with all three wins, which only two other teams managed to do in this World Cup. Nothing unexpected and it was practically clear that there should not be any wrong steps in the first two rounds should and that the first place would be decided by duel with England. They have played the first half-time with Panama in a slightly slower pace, while they resolved all dilemmas with three goals in the second part. Against Tunisia they looked more powerfully in the attack, but they showed some weaknesses in their defence and received two goals, which is not happening very often, however, Belgium is still an extremely offensive team and they are always able to compensate for their failures in defence with goals.

Their match against England was expected as a big derby, but since both teams had previously secured the round of sixteen, it was not exactly a duel that was announced before the start of the World Cup. Coach Martinez played the first two duels with the same team, and against England there were only two of 11 of them on the field, goalkeeper Courtois and center-back Boyat. He has expectedly decided to rest his best players, and did not want to risk a yellow card, while striker R.Lukako took a breather because of a minor injury, but he should be ready for this duel. Vermaelen and Kompany are recovered and should play in this match, with the proviso that Martinez will not probably change the team that celebrated in the first two rounds.

Probable lineups Belgium: Courtois – Alderweireld, Boyata, Vertonghen – Meunier, Witsel, de Bruyne, Carrasco – E.Hazard, Mertens – R.Lukaku

Japan

When looking at all the teams that have qualified in the round of sixteen, Japan is surely one of the biggest surprises, with Sweden of course, but only because of the fact that they eliminated the Germans. The Japanese did not send such a strong rivals home, that is, it cannot be said that the Japanese have sent anyone home because they had only one win and that was at start against Colombia, which later passed in the round of sixteen from the first position. The big question is whether the Japanese would celebrate in this duel if there was not for the early exclusion of the opponent’s player and the penalty from which they took the lead. In the second round they were waiting for Senegal and they also had problems because they lost twice and then somehow managed to return for the final draw, which left them in the first place and in the excellent position before the last round. Still, they had to play against Poland, which, as a major disappointment, even earlier lost all the chances of getting into the knockout stage.

The Japans needed a point to be safe, but they had good prospects even in the case of defeat. In the end they were defeated and it happened with 1-0, however, Senegal has lost and the Japanese from the second place went to the finals for the third time in history. It is interesting that the placement was ruled by a smaller number of yellow cards for Japan, compared to Senegal. They have “gambled” a lot in their duel with Poland and coach Nishino would have been guilty of their elimination, because he had changed six players compared to the first two rounds when he played with the same team. They have completely failed, although it cannot be said that they played very well in the first two rounds. They had a lot of luck and they managed to rest some of the players, and now their strongest forces certainly return to the field, which brought them these good results.

Probable lineups Japan: Kawashima – H.Sakai, Yoshida, Shoji, Nagatomo – Hasebe, Shibasaki – Haraguchi, Kagawa, Inui – Osako

Verdict:

The Belgians have shown their offensive potential in the first two games, and they had very good reservists in the third, so they are big favourites in this duel against Japan, which have so far been more fortunate than they have shown and therefore we think that the World Cup ends for them after this match.

Pick: Asian Handicap -1 Belgium 1.59 - 59/100 @1XBet