BELGIUM VS SAUDI ARABIA PREVIEW & PREDICTION
Belgium and Saudi Arabia face each other on Monday night in Brussels. Both Belgium and Saudi Arabia have qualified for the WC of the coming summer and especially Belgium-national coach Roberto Martínez has a lot of choices to make in the run up to the World Cup.
Belgium:
The Belgians have had a nice batch for a number of years, but the harvesting season has really started for the Red Devils. Two years ago at the European Championships in France, then national coach Marc Wilmots also had a selection with a lot of quality, but then there was mainly the fear that the Belgians had too little experience at a final tournament to really win. That expectation turned out to have been lost by the Red Devils in the quarterfinals with 3-1 of Wales and so the Belgians did not really succeed in making an impression on the 2016 European Championship.
In Russia, however, the time of harvesting has arrived for the Red Devils and Roberto Martínez has to lead Belgium to the final victory. Nevertheless, the bookmakers are of the opinion that Brazil, Germany, France, Spain and Argentina are much more likely to win the final victory. In a group with the void Panama, Tunisia and England, the Belgians have to get through the group phase with two fingers in the nose and that does not seem to be a problem when you consider what kind of national coach Martínez can have.
Before the game against Saudi Arabia Martínez has called a lot of players who already have a nice name in football. Players like Kevin de Bruyne, Radja Nainggolan, Eden Hazard and Dries Mertens are all the most important players at their club. In addition, football players such as Romelu Lukaku, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen can also kick a nice ball and Martínez has a lot of difficult choices to make in the coming months. By the way, Thibaut Courtois was also called up for the international match against Saudi Arabia, but the Chelsea goalkeeper did not recover in time from his hamstring injury. It is striking that old NEC’er Anthony Limbombe also had a call from Martínez, but in Belgium they do not think that Limbombe will actually go with the Red Devils to Russia.
Saudi Arabia:
Of course, Saudi Arabia will never win the World Cup this summer, but it is good that they have qualified. That the Sons of the Desert in a few months of the party are of course they mainly thanks to Bert van Marwijk. Van Marwijk was allowed to pack his belongings soon after he had placed himself with Saudi Arabia and Juan Antonio Pizzi will take place in the bank of Saudi Arabia in Russia. It is and remains good that Saudi Arabia in a group with Japan, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Thailand has placed themselves directly for the World Cup, because it is not the case that Van Marwijk had the disposal of a world selection. to the Middle East country.
For Saudi Arabia, host Russia is the first opponent at the World Cup and next to it are Uruguay and Egypt in the group of Saudi Arabia. All in all, Saudi Arabia really wants to survive the group stage, but national coach Juan Antonio Pizzi will want to make a big impression with Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia they used the past week to store a training camp in Spain, because according to Pizzi his selection has to get used to the circumstances that come with a world championship. Pizzi would have been better off going to Scandinavia with his group, because in Marbella it is currently also a grade of fifteen and that is not really the weather conditions that Saudi Arabia has to deal with in Russia.
In Saudi Arabia they have played a lot of matches in recent months – in contrast to Belgium. Saudi Arabia participated in the Gulf Cup, but obviously did not take the tournament seriously and they played mainly with the second garnish. Also in February matches were played against Moldova (3-0 win) and Iraq (4-1) loss, but even then Pizzi could not have his best selection. Last Friday against Ukraine, however, Pizzi did have his best team and Saudi Arabia kept Ukraine on a 1-1 draw. However, a 1-1 draw against Ukraine is not a bad result, especially when you know that Pizzi’s entire selection is still active in his own Pro League.
PREDICTION: Over 2.5 goals @ 1.54
