The Czech Republic and Belgium will have one of the most interesting matchups in Saturday’s matches of the World Cup qualifiers. The Red Devils travel to Prague, where they meet the fired-up Czechs who rolled over Estonia on the road. After a long time, they have a team that possesses a quality, maybe not to attack some trophies, but to be regular at each big tournament. As for Belgium… well, there is no need to speak too much about the No.1 team in the FIFA rankings. They are the favorite in pretty much every game in which they appear.
Preview
Czech Republic (+400) defeated Estonia 2-6 in the opening leg of the WC qualifiers Group E. It was a display of their offensive weapons and a good warm-up for arguably, the best team in the world at the moment. The Czechs are aware of the current situation, but despite that, have plans on how to win three points here as well.
Their team is solid, with several solid individuals who have important roles in their clubs. Soucek, Vydra, Shick, all these guys are not world-class payers but are very good. The additional strength of this team is the fact that many players play together in the domestic league, and they know each other very well, having the chemistry developed properly.
As for the style of play, they are usually adjusting to the opponent. On rare occasions, you might see a high-scoring affair when Czechs play, as they frequently end matches with two or three goals.
Belgium (-166) opened the game against Wales slowly, before rolling over the opponents once they became angry. Wales took the lead, and later on, felt what it is like to be standing in front of the hurricane called Belgium.
A 3-1 win was their 17th in the last 20 matches, and that pretty much says it all about these guys. Also, the game against Wales was the fifth straight for the Red Devils in which they’ve scored two or more goals, and sixth in the previous seven contests that saw over 2.5 goals.
De Bruyne, Lukaku, Mertens, and the rest of the boys always create trouble for the opposite side, and to be honest, we can’t remember the game when Belgium didn’t score.
Latest News
There isn’t any especially interesting news considering both teams. Slovakia has all of its called-up players available, the same as Belgium. There haven’t been any injuries or suspensions after the first matches.
Head to Head Games
These two teams haven’t met too often in the past 20 years. The most recent clash was in 2017, and it was a friendly international, with Belgium posting a 2-1.
Prediction
The Red Devils are absolute favorites here, and in our opinion, the home team isn’t capable of restraining Lukaku and the boys up front. It was spectacular to see them winning in Estonia, packing six goals, but against Belgium, they have nothing to hope for with all due respect. Tempo of the guests will break them sooner or later, and we expect to see the Belgians scoring at least twice.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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