England v Belgium - England beaten by Belgium in World Cup and face Colombia in last 16 - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Match 45
Perhaps, trying to be optimistic, it might work out better this way, after all. Maybe England will have the chance later in this tournament to be grateful they avoided the possibility of a quarter-final against Brazil. And, without wishing to get too far ahead of ourselves, perhaps this defeat will not matter greatly if England can find themselves in a position whereby it is Sweden or Switzerland trying to prevent them reaching the semi-finals rather than, in theory, the five-times world champions.
Alternatively it might just be that England come to regret the night Gareth Southgate chose to field a vastly changed lineup – a vastly weakened one, too, on this evidence – when the reward for preserving their place at the summit of Group G would have been a tie against Japan in the last 16.
Instead England fell flat on a strangely subdued evening, full of intrigue but low on drama with the category-A players from both sides watching from the bench. It was a calculated gamble from Southgate and Adnan Januzaj’s winner, six minutes into the second half, means England will now have to take on Colombia next Tuesday, whereas Belgium get the plum tie against Japan the previous night.
Japan, to put it into context, are 61st in Fifa’s world rankings, just above Honduras, Finland, Mali and Cape Verde, yet six places worse off than the Panama side England have already walloped for six. Colombia will represent a much sterner challenge and there are bound to be questions about Southgate’s thinking if the game in Moscow goes badly.
Southgate plainly felt it was a risk worth taking, making eight changes and giving Harry Kane the night off. Even when England were behind, Southgate resisted any temptation to call for the player who is currently leading the Golden Boot scoring charts. Instead it was Danny Welbeck who was brought off the bench. Kane was there, in his kit, and so were Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard, Dele Alli and quite a few others. Marcus Rashford could not beat Thibaut Courtois with England’s outstanding chance and in the closing minutes it could hardly be described as an onslaught on the Belgian goal. And yet Southgate did not seem too crestfallen.
As a spectacle this was a difficult one to assess. Roberto MartÃnez had put out a form of Belgium-lite, meaning the game went ahead with Thorgan Hazard, rather than his brother Eden, running at Phil Jones. Kevin De Bruyne’s absence further diminished Belgium’s powers. Romelu Lukaku was also given the night off, among nine changes, and it was a shame in many ways that the outstanding fixture of the group should be deprived of so many elite players. Hypothetical, perhaps, but it would have been much better fun if this fixture had been the first or second match, rather than with both teams already qualified.
SOURCE:https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/28/england-belgium-world-cup-group-g-match-report
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