Belgium Huge Favourites Against Japan
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The penultimate day of World Cup Round of 16 games is played on Monday 2nd July. The second match sees a clash between Belgium and Japan in Rostov-on-Don.
This game presents a huge opportunity for Belgium to reach the quarter-final of the World Cup. If they could have handpicked their opponent from Group H, it would highly likely have been Japan.
The Japanese are thrilled to have reached this stage of the competition and have already gone further than most fans expected. Now they are here, they will be hoping to give a good account of themselves against strong opposition.
Belgium started their 2018 World Cup campaign with a comfortable win over Panama. The teams went in level 0-0 at half-time but Belgium came out in the second half and scored three very good goals without reply to take maximum points.
Their second game was even better and the Red Devils scored 5 goals against a Tunisia team who had previously pushed England very close in their opening match of the tournament. The 5-2 win for Belgium saw them qualify with a match to spare.
The final group game came against England and despite making several changes to the starting XI, Belgium came out on top 1-0 to top the group and move on to the knockout stages with plenty of confidence.
Belgium scored 9 goals in the group stage, conceding only two.
Japan were given a huge advantage in their first group game against Colombia when they were awarded a penalty and the opposition were reduced to 10 men. The Japanese took full advantage to cause a shock and win the game 2-1.
The second match against Senegal saw Japan fall behind twice but on both occasions, they battled back to level the score and the match ended 2-2. Despite losing their final match to Poland, who were already eliminated, Japan progressed to the Round of 16 thanks to Colombia’s win over Senegal.
Japan scored 4 goals and conceded 4 goals, meaning they had a 0 goal difference in the group stages.
Looking ahead to the team news and Belgium will welcome back several key players who were rested for the England game. Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Dries Mertens are all expected to come back into the starting XI. Vincent Kompany and Thomas Vermaelen are both fit having played against England.
Japan are also expected to recall players for this game including Shinji Kagawa, Takashi Inui, Yuya Osako and Mateo Hasebe. Veteran midfielder, Keisuke Honda is expected to start the match on the bench.
The Japanese have done very well to reach this stage of the competition but this is where their World Cup adventure is likely to come to end. Belgium are the massive favourites to win this game and should come out on top with at least a 2 goal cushion.
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