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A tale of two promises in the World Cup

RickyMundo new author
Roar Rookie
9th June, 2018
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Romelu Lukaku was a social media star before he made his name on the pitch. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
RickyMundo new author
Roar Rookie
9th June, 2018
0

It’s a tale about two promising teams that haven’t delivered on their promises for a long time.

Both are drawn together in the same group this World Cup, both are ranked in the top 15 in the world and both have some of the best players in the world, with most of them playing in the English Premier League.

One has won the World Cup once in 1966 and the other finished fourth in 1986 World Cup. If you haven’t guessed so far who those teams are, it’s England and Belgium.

England hasn’t lost a qualifying match for any major competition since October 2009, however, they didn’t make it past the group stage in the last World Cup in 2014, while Belgium lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals last World Cup.

A glimpse at their squads shows so much promise, yet England hasn’t made it past the quarterfinals since 1990 when they reached the fourth place and Belgium reached the same heights in 1986. With Premier League superstars like Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose and others the expectations are high as always for England.

Kane, a two times golden boat winner in the last three years in the EPL and the England captain, believes England can go all the way. Similar to him, Sterling has also had a great season for Manchester City scoring 18 goals and providing 15 assists.

But with a new and inexperienced manager and a squad that is only made up of players playing in the English Premier League, can they really go far on the world stage?

Like England, Belgium has their own EPL superstars like Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and others. De Bruyne, who plays as a midfielder for the EPL champions Manchester City, scored 8 goals and provided 16 assists last season while Lukaku, who plays in Man Utd as a striker, scored 17 goals.

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Not surprisingly, Belgium topped their group in the qualifications scoring 4.3 goals per game similar to Germany. However, will their lack of big achievements in the big stage be a factor once they progress past the group stage? Last World Cup Belgium reached the quarterfinals and lost to Argentina, and more than half of that team making it to the squad this time.

This World Cup, England and Belgium are in the same group with Panama and Tunisia, so they are almost certain to go through. Then they are likely to play against Poland and Colombia.

If they go past these teams, then they might play against Brazil or Germany. Can anyone bet on England not losing to Germany in penalties or underachieving Belgium who is ranked third in the world beating Brazil, who is second and won the World Cup five times?

I can’t.

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