The journey towards bringing football home ended in the semi-finals, where Croatia deated the Three Lions by 2-1. So the gold medal is lost, but England still have the chance on a medal. The match for the World Cup bronze medal is being played on Saturday, where England will face Belgium. The teams have already played against each other in this tournament, in the last match of the group stage. Belgium won that game by 1-0, even though none of the teams seemed to eager to win and come out on top of the group. We reckon that this match will be a whole lot different than the one we saw in the group stage, and England’s chances are good.
Hopes were high for a long time, but England finally had to surrender to Croatia in the semi-final. Trippier’s glorious free-kick goal came after only five minutes, which raised the english spirit even higher. But it would turn out that one goal simply wouldn’t be enough. Croatia evened out the score in the 68th minute, and brought the match to extra time. The final result of the match was settled in the 109th minute, when Croatia’s Mandzukic found his way past Jordan Pickford. 2-1 to Croatia, and the end of England’s road to bringing it home.
Rematch between group-stage rivals
The World Cup’s third place play-off will, interestingly enough, be played between the two teams that advanced from Group G. It will be the second time England and Belgium faces each other in this World Cup. The first time was the dull group final, where the two teams made a total of 17 changes in the lineups – since it was a match none of them wanted to win. Belgium came out victorious in that match, which meant that they went on to the on beforehand harder side of the play-offs. Both teams did however make it to the semi-finals, but that’s where the hope of gold died.
Both teams will surely feel the disappointment of missing out on Sunday’s final, but they will probably want to end the tournament on a high. For England, a win on Saturday would be their best result in a World Cup since 1966.
Prediction and bet tips – Belgium vs England
Our prediction for the match is that Belgium will turn out to be too strong for the Three Lions at this point. Belgium has had one more day of rest, and the english team was forced to play a full 120 minutes against Croatia. That will probably have taken it’s toll on the players, and they will have a hard time keeping up with Belgiums quick players.
For that reason, we choose to play Belgium this match. Our best tip is to place your bet at Betway, who offer the odds of 6/5 on Belgium to win!
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Skriven den 13 July, 2018