Whoever looked at Belgium’s World Cup displays so far, would probably be shocked to learn that they are second team in the world on FIFA rankings list. Second. In front of European champions Italians, current world champions France and former European champions Portugal, among others. They are better than England and Spain also. So, when a second placed team in the world is facing a 12th placed nation, they are supposed to be favorites. But, that 12th placed team are 2018 World Cup finalists, Croatia. And unlike Belgium, they are united in the locker room and eager to play for their Croatian ‘Messi’, Luka Modrić.🗣 “They are quite happy to jump on fake news. It’s quite astonishing.”Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez hits out at stories of “unrest” in the squad #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/qwvjr7ZtIC— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 30, 2022 The Real Madrid midfielder is 37 years old and this will be his last World Cup. With 5 Champions League trophies, he has little to prove, but would like an extended run at the world’s biggest stage and his teammates can arrange that for him if they manage to win or draw against Belgium today. Problem is, the Red Devils need a win and nothing less to get through.“Their coach Martinez has done a lot in these four years, he led them to the first place in the FIFA rankings at one point, he is a great coach and he will know how to position himself against Croatia. But we have our own quality and we must not give up on that. If you’re playing against De Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard, don’t be fooled by talk of a crisis. Let’s go tomorrow ready for war” said coach Zlatko Dalić.Lukaku is the peacemaker in the Belgium squadThe Croats won’t be fooled by the fact that the mood in the Belgian camp is not ideal (to put it mildly), and that instead of football, they are talking about the ‘leaks’ from the dressing room and fake news from France. L’ Equipe recently claimed Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen after Manchester City player claimed in the Guardian that Belgium are ‘too old’ to win the World Cup. And coach Roberto Martinez also accused Belgian media for playing along with the reports from France.“We were not happy with the two performances. Then you see the storm on the outside and realise that maybe we were listening too much to the outside noise before the tournament. Now we have some outlets in Belgium that are quite happy to jump on fake news. That’s quite astonishing. A World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and you could see maybe a country like France did a very good job with a story that became the main topic of conversation in Belgium. It showed there is maybe more desire to find negative news around this team than to really get this nation together and support this team and enjoy the talent of the best generation we have ever had in Belgium football. That was probably a lesson for all of us – that we are here on our own and we are here to fight for what we believe is the way we want to play and hopefully the fans – the real fans – of the Red Devils can enjoy the process. Whoever has done it has scored a great own goal for Belgium. If I could weaken opponents as a journalist I would do that. Whoever has done it is a genius” said Martinez at the press conference ahead of the game.Thursday, Dec 1st18:00: (3.80) Croatia (3.45) Belgium (2.00) F18:00: (3.45) Canada (3.15) Morocco (2.25) F22:00: (8.50) Japan (4.80) Spain (1.37) E22:00: (12.0) Costa Rica (6.50) Germany (1.23) E
