The one we’ve all been waiting for. Beating Tunisia and Panama is all fun and games, but now this is serious. With first place up for grabs, England and Belgium head into Thursday night’s game in Kaliningrad looking to assert dominance.
There’s one interesting scenario developing in the least interesting 2018 World Cup group. England and Belgium are tied in points (6) and tied on goal difference (8:2). The tie-breaker in these situations is fair play, which means that in case of a draw, the team with the least amount of yellow/red cards tops the other. England currently holds the advantage in that department. We could even see the rare coin-flip scenario. That’ll happen if both squads end up tied in yellow/red cards as well. It’s something to watch in the background of what should be a fascinating encounter.
England and Belgium have done their best to take advantage of a lenient draw. The Red Devils followed up a 3-0 win versus Panama with a 5-2 beating of Tunisia. Romelu Lukaku has scored half of Belgium’s goals, but he’s not the one on pace to win the Golden Boot. That’s Harry Kane. Add a hat-trick (two penalties) from England’s 6-1 crashing of Panama to the brace against Tunisia and you have World Cup’s leading goal scorer. Goals won’t come by so easily for either of them in the rest of the tournament, though, starting on Thursday.
Hazard, Lukaku, Mertens and De Bruyne are probably the most dangerous quartet in Russia. The four of them have so much talent combined that’s difficult to imagine how a team can prevent them from getting points on the scoreboard. England will give it a go.
Another amusing aspect of this contest is Roberto Martinez and Gareth Southgate employing the same three-defenders, two-wing back tactic. The difference is Kevin De Bruyne. He’s a player who makes this tactic click on all cylinders and a player that the Three Lions don’t have.
A lot depends on how the managers approach this fixture, considering both teams have qualified for the next phase of the competition, it doesn’t really matter which opponent from Group H they get to play against. If they opt to rest, then we could see a relaxed, pass-heavy contest without too much offensive commitment and several new names inserted into the starting lineups. If they opt to measure their strengths, then we could see an exhilarating football affair between two teams fighting for Group G supremacy.
