On Monday at 2pm in Rostov Arena, Belgium and Japan begin their march through the knockout stages of the World Cup. Japan surprised the soccer world by advancing with a second-place finish in their group, while Belgium have mostly dominated their games though the group stage and are among the teams left who have a good chance at winning the World Cup. The World Cup Betting odds have this game tilting heavily in Belgium's favor, and with a star-studded lineup it is easy to imagine why. Japan will need to come into the game with a lot of fight and have a tremendous amount of luck in order to win. Japan does have history on their side though, as they have only lost once to Belgium in international competition in the five times they have played (2-2-1).
Belgium
Among the teams that were initially favored to do well prior to the start of the World Cup, Belgium is one of the few to live up to expectations during the group stage. They kept a clean sheet against Panama and England and disposed of Tunisia 5-2 en route to a first-place finish in group H. Now they have an easy out in the round of 16 against Japan, who was one of the lowest ranked teams coming into the World Cup. It will likely be their last 'easy' match, as the competition gets ratcheted up for the next three rounds. They are in the round of 16 for the 6th time in their last 7 World Cup appearances. They are playing with a group of players that many consider to be the best in the country's history, but at the same time they have disappointed on many occasions. Most recently they lost to Wales in the quarterfinals of the European tournament in 2016, and before that they had a poor showing against Argentina in the 2014 World Cup.
Japan
If it wasn't for Russia, Japan would easily be the upset kings of the World Cup so far. Having defeated two teams that are much more talented and deep than they are in Colombia and Senegal, Japan secured its spot in the round of 16 thanks to a surprise win over Colombia followed by a World Cup-first decision based on fair play over Senegal. Having tied their game with Senegal and lost their final game against Poland, Japan was tied in all the other tie-breaking categories with the Senegalese, and the decision to let Japan advance was based on yellow cards. Now in the knockout rounds for the third time in their history, they have a chance to advance past the round of 16 for the first time ever.
Match Overview
This World Cup has been full of incredible upsets, so it is difficult to be 100 percent confident that this game will end with a Belgium win, but all signs point to that being the case. Belgium has an excellent class of players, some of whom have spent over 10 years playing together on the national squad. Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Mousla Dembele and Kevin DeBruyne are all giants at their positions, and as long as they can bring the heat against Japan on Monday, there is little chance they will lose.
