A beautiful goal to England by lost talent Adnan Januzaj secured Belgium’s first place in World Cup Group H, in a match where both coaches Gareth Southgate and Roberto Martinez seemed more willing to preserve their top players, than go for the win. Qualifying from the second spot of the pool meant gaining access to an easier part of the knock-out phase bracket, at least on paper.
Which earlier in the day had led to speculations that Belgium and England – who shared the exact same score before kick-off, same point, same goal difference, equal number of goals scored – were going to play to lose tonight, or at least sign a non-aggression pact, and let the FIFA fair play coefficient break the tie.
The two teams didn’t actually do much to dissipate such conjectures during the first 45 minutes. People on the stands of the Kaliningrad Stadium did realize that, and loudly whistled at players from both sided as they made their way back to the locker rooms.
But Belgium eventually broke the balance a few minutes into the second half, when Real Sociedad’s striker put the ball past English goalie Jordan Pickford, silencing criticism and conspiracy theories. If the Belgians were really aiming at the second place, and a presumably an easier road towards the Final in Moscow, all they had to do was…nothing, as a goalless draw would have qualified the British side from the top spot due to their better fair play coefficient (2-5 the count of yellow cards in favor of the Three Lions).
Januzaj’s goal made the remaining of the match a little more vibrant, but still quite disappointing, considering the hype grown around two of the best national sides seen so far in Russia. But with Gareth Southgate lining up only three of his regular starters, and his colleague Martinez going as far as deploying nine second lines out of eleven players, it was unrealistic to expect for more.
And if Martinez’s choice of leaving the slightly injured Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard on the bench was to be expected (but at least he left space to Eden’s brother Thorgan…), Harry Kane’s exclusion on the part of coach Southgate was more surprising. Citizen Kane could have been battling to increase his scoring tally in the World Cup top scorer run, but he rather had to watch his teammates Marcus Rashford and Jaime Vardy managing to create only one clear threat to Thibaut Courtois between the two of them (good job by Chelsea’s goalie on the occasion)
Belgium produced more chances, with Youri Tielemans calling Pickford to an early save, and Gary Cahill forced to clear the ball right on the goal line from a shot by Michy Batshuayi. The Adnan Januzaj concretized the slight predominance of the Red Devils side with his fantastic curl shot from the right corner of the box, which set the score to 1-0 and positioned the last two names in the knock-out stage bracket:
Coach Roberto Martinez’s side were paired with Japan for their Round of 16 match, to be played next Monday in Rostov. The following day in Moscow, England will square off with Colombia. Hopefully showing more than what seen tonight.
MATCH REPORT
June 28, 2018 – World Cup Group Stage Pool H
ENGLAND-BELGIUM 0-1
SCORER: 51′ Januzaj
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ENGLAND (3-5-2): Pickford; Cahill, Stones (46′ Maguire), Jones; Alexander-Arnold (78′ Welbeck), Delph, Dier, Loftus-Cheek, Rose; Rashford, Vardy (Butland, Pope, Walker, Lingard, Henderson, Kane, Sterling, Trippier, Young, Dele) Coach: Southgate |
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BELGIUM (3-4-2-1): Courtois; Vermaelen (73′ Kompany), Boyata, Dendoncker; Chadli, Dembelé, Fellaini, T. Hazard; Tielemans, Januzaj (85′ Mertens); Batshuayi (Mignolet, Casteels, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Witsel, De Bruyne, Lukaku, E. Hazard, Carrasco, Meunier) Coach: Martinez |
REFEREE: Skomina (Slovenia)
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Tielemans, Dendoncker (B)