England vs. Belgium: starting XIs and group G permutations

England vs. Belgium

• When: Thursday 28 June
• Kick-off time: 7pm
• Where: Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad
• TV channel: live on ITV

England have set themselves up for a fall this evening in Kaliningrad - or rather the press and the public have.

After a last-gasp 2-1 win against Tunisia and then a 6-1 thrashing of a Panama team who, as Rio Ferdinand said, had all the quality of a non-league side, suddenly “football’s coming home”.

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Fortunately England manager Gareth Southgate is not getting carried away by the hype. “We’ve not won a knockout game since 2006,” he said in response to a journalist’s question about who he would prefer to face in the semi-final, “so why we are starting to plot which would be a better venue for our semi-final is beyond me, really.”

England will face Colombia or Japan in the last-16, but Southgate wants to win against Belgium and finish top of group G.

He said: “We want to win. That would mean we top the group and then we can move forward. I go back to the fact we’re trying to develop a winning mentality and I can’t imagine a situation where I talk to the players about anything else. It just wouldn’t be authentic for what we’ve been trying to build for the last two years.”

German lesson

Southgate held his press conference yesterday afternoon, at the same time that news filtered through from Kazan that holders Germany had been dumped out of the tournament by South Korea.

“It just shows that any team can be vulnerable,” said Southgate, who more than most Englishmen has suffered at the hands of German footballers.

“In sport and in life you have to keep evolving. They’ve been ahead for about a minute and a half, in total, of their three matches and it’s unusual to see them struggle as much as they have. But they have played teams who have been tactically very good.

“They were close to the wire against Sweden and they have not been able to break Korea down.”

Starting XIs

What happens if England win or lose?

If England win

They’ll play Japan, the runners-up in group H, in the last 16 in Rostov-on-Don on Monday 2 July, kick-off 7pm.

If England lose

They’ll play Colombia, the winners of group H, in Moscow on Tuesday 3 July, kick-off 7pm.

If England draw

The winner of group G will be decided on fair play ratings and England have collected two yellow cards to Belgium’s three going into the tie.

World Cup group G permutations

England and Belgium have already qualified from group G. Their clash will decide who finishes top and who finishes second. Tunisia and Panama are eliminated.

28 June fixtures: England vs. Belgium (7pm, ITV); Panama vs. Tunisia (7pm, ITV4)

Fifa.com explains the permutations in group G:

• England and Belgium have identical records so a winner on Thursday will qualify top while a loser will be second
• If the England vs. Belgium match ends in a draw it will come down to the disciplinary records of both teams to decide who finishes top
• If it’s a draw and the disciplinary records are the same then lots will be drawn to decide the final group places
• Tunisia and Panama are out