England vs Belgium LIVE World Cup 2018: England second in Group G - latest reaction and analysis from Kaliningrad
Follow all the reaction from the final game in Group G in Kaliningrad
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Your support makes all the difference.The battle for the top of Group G looks like it will be a close one. Both England and Belgium have already qualified for the round of 16 with decisive victories over both Panama and Tunisia.
England had a rocky start to the competition when they faced Tunisia, managing to pull off a win with a late goal from skipper Harry Kane. The team looked much better when they faced Panama, putting away five goals before the end of the first half.
Belgium will be far and away the biggest challenge that England will face in the group stage of the competition. Their team is packing a lot of star power, big Premier League names like Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard, and Kevin De Bruyne pack a punch for the Belgian national side.
Follow all the live action below…
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What time is it?
England vs Belgium kicks off at 19:00 at the Kaliningrad Stadium.
Where can I watch it?
Live coverage is available on ITV and online via the ITV Hub.
Odds
England: 17/10
Belgium: 15/8
Draw: 2/1
Prediction
This game will be a close one. England will need to bring the level of play that they brought for last week’s game against Panama. The Belgian side has been very impressive in the competition so far and is among the favourites to win the trophy.
Tunisia in goalkeeping crisis
Tunisia will start third-choice goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi and have striker Fakhreddine Ben Youssef act as his back-up in their final World Cup game against Panama on Thursday after FIFA rejected their request to add a replacement keeper to the squad.
Tunisia's first and second choice keepers are unavailable after picking up injuries at the tournament and they flew Moez Ben Cherifia from champions Esperance to Moscow on Wednesday in the hope he might be allowed to be included in the squad.
However, the Tunisian Football Federation said on Thursday that this request had been rejected by FIFA and they would have to use the players currently in the squad.
Tunisia lost first-choice goalkeeper Mouez Hassen after just 16 minutes of their first game against England when he injured his shoulder in a collision with Jesse Lingard.
Farouk Ben Mustapha took his place in the 2-1 defeat in Volgograd and also played in the 5-2 loss to Belgium in Moscow before suffering knee ligament damage in training on Tuesday.
FIFA allow injury replacements in the World Cup only up until 24 hours before a team's first game. (Mark Gleeson, Reuters)
England vs Belgium 'like a Premier League match'
12 of Belgium's 23 players play in the Premier League and, well, all of England's team do, which means this fixture will be "like a Premier League match, barring a few players," according to Phil Jones.
“We know what we’re up against, we know their players inside out and know what we’ve got to do," added the Manchester United and England defender. "We play against them near enough every week.”
Vardy to start
According to reports, Jamie Vardy will make his first World Cup start against Belgium, which means Harry Kane could be rested.
With progress to the round of 16 already secured, Southgate is rotating the team and will start Leicester's Vardy whose only previous international tournament start was against Slovakia in England's final group game in the 2016 European Championship with qualification already in the bag.
Neville: "From an England view, it’s important to give the squad faith and trust."
Former England and Manchester United right-back Gary Neville has urged Gareth Southgate to make some changes to the team to ensure that they avoid fatigue in later stages.
Neville points to his own experiences as a reminder that knockout rounds in tournaments are very tiring.
Panama targeting "pure happiness"
Panama head coach Hernan Dario Gomez wants to leave Russia with at least one point and says victory will have the whole country smiling upon their return.
"We are doing everything we can to get a positive result for Panama," he said.
"It will not be as intense as our two games against the European teams, we are again the underdogs but we want to take at least one point back to Panama."
"We are still in the World Cup, we haven't packed our bags yet and for us anything positive is important.
"To win and get three points would be pure happiness for us and the entire country, we would be writing a page in the history books so we still have a will to work.
"We will try to make sure we keep our balance and we still have the dream to win the match and that hasn't changed."
History says England should try and beat Beglium
Although qualifying second grants England an arguably easier route to bringing football home, the last seven World Cup winners finished first in their group.
↵"It's all about momentum" Gary Cahill targeting third England win
Gary Cahill knows how unusual this England situation is. He has been to two tournaments before - it should have been three, more on which later - and has never known England to have won both of their first two games. This is unchartered territory, even for Cahill, England’s most experienced and decorated player.
Tunisia have catching up to do
Tunisia coach Nabil Maaloul said Arabian football still had a lot of catching up to do to present a challenge at the highest level. Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all failed to move to the next stage in Russia.
Maaloul said. "We need two more generations to reach (the top) level of performance in terms of fitness and physical strength. We are far from the required level."
Captain Wahbi Khazri also said the gap between European and Arab teams was too wide.
"The level was too high, too elevated over the two games," Khazri said.
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