Gareth Southgate has promised that England will go all out to win Thursday’s final group game against Belgium but the message coming from the opposition camp suggests they don’t feel the same way.
Belgium boss Roberto Martinez has said that fielding an entirely different outfield team to the one that crushed Tunisia 5-2 on Saturday is “an option”, given that they and England are assured of qualification for the last 16.
Neither side is that bothered about finishing top of group G because of the likely opposition in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and for Martinez there is the worry that three of his squad are one booking away from a suspension.
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With Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku nursing slight injuries, the Belgium manager may take the opportunity of giving a game to his second-stringers and allowing the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen to start on the bench.
“If I was going to speak about every player, I think every one of them deserves to play in the World Cup,” Martinez told the BBC. “So it’s more important for me to be able to give that opportunity and see how they can react on the pitch and how much they can contribute.���
How it stands in group G
England and Belgium are locked together at the top of the group, having scored and conceded the same number of goals in beating Tunisia and Panama.
The Three Lions are top because they have collected two yellow cards to Belgium’s three and therefore, provided they don’t lose, they would go through as group winners, resulting in a likely quarter-final against Brazil or Germany - provided they win their round of 16 clash.
According to The Times, the idea has been mooted in some quarters that “England should collect bookings on purpose if the match is heading for a draw to finish second”.
But a source within Fifa has warned they would “take a tough line on any such unsporting behaviour and impose additional bans to any player who sought a deliberate yellow card”.
‘Dangerous territory’
But Southgate insisted his players want to win on Thursday and build on the impressive momentum generated so far.
“We want to win every game of football we go into,” he said. “I don’t know how we would go into a game not wanting to win and not wanting to play well. I think that’s dangerous territory if we start trying to plot and predict where we might end up.
“We had a really favourable draw, we all thought, in the last tournament [against Iceland at Euro 2016] and it didn’t work out that way.”
England vs. Belgium
