On Saturday July the 14th at 10am Eastern, England will take on Belgium for the title of third place at the 2018 World Cup. This is always the game that nobody wants to play in, but for both teams, the fact that they have made it this far and killed off so many past demons in the process is a feat of its own. Belgium is a slight favorite to win this game, according to our World Cup Betting odds. They have a stronger all-around pool of talent and have faced harder competition coming into this game. England has history on their side, however, as they have won 15 of the 22 all-time matches between these two nations. This game will also be the second time that these two sides have played each other in the 2018 World Cup, as they were in the same group at the start of the tournament.
England
With so much hope and support riding on their trip to the semi-finals, a game for third place may seem like a miserable consolation to some, but England fans should still take great solace in the progress that their young, energetic national team has made during this World Cup. They killed off many a ghost of the past with their Round of 16 shootout win vs Colombia, then proved their mettle with a gutsy win against a unified Swedish team. Even in their loss to Croatia, England was resilient and showed up all the way up to the end, when they lost in supplemental time. Captain Harry Kane has been brilliant, and the run to the semi-finals made household names out of players like Jordan Pickford and Marcus Rashford. This is only the beginning for this group of budding stars, so England fans have a lot to look forward to.
Belgium
While it is easy to imagine that England feels ok about their exit from the World Cup, it is much harder to believe that Belgium has taken well to their loss against France. While France may be a formidable opponent as one of the favorites to win at the start of the tournament, there was a lot more riding on the line for Belgium. This year they were able to assemble what may be the most significant collection of players in their country's history for this tournament, and to have come up short must hurt. It is difficult to say if they will be able to field the same team for 2022, as most of the core players are in their late 20's-early 30's and will likely have passed their prime by that time. However, for a country which has over 100 years of soccer history and has only made it this far at the World Cup one other time in their history, it is hard to view 2018 as anything less than a success.
Match Overview
Third place games are hard to predict because the teams playing in them are typically still getting past the crushing defeat they faced in the semi-finals. Third place games are also historically high-scoring; the last three third-place games have produced a total of 12 goals. With that in mind, Belgium is the favorite here, as they have a more robust team of talented players who have been playing together for the better part of a decade. England, by contrast, is more of an upstart. England has an average age of 25.7 years, with most of their key players being even younger than that. This game certainly has the potential to be a shootout, which if nothing else should be fun to watch.
