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Belgium v Serbia
We discussed Belgium last week ahead of their big win in the US ....
"Both teams are heavily weakened by withdrawls, with the visitors missing Nicolas Lombaerts, Axel Witsel, Nacer Chadli, and Eden Hazard, plus Vincent Kompany and Christian Benteke are also likely to sit this one out. Hosts are without 7-8 regulars, four are set to join up with the squad after today and the US will be looking for a good run out, but under no circumstances do they want to collect any further injuries. They have a far more high profile macth with Germany at the weekend and three hugely important World Cup qualifiers between June 7th-18th and these two warm up games are viewed exactly as that. Of course, the same is true for Belgium to a degree, but this is aruably their strongest squad in history and huge competition for starting places in the World Cup qualifier with Serbia next week. Apart from Clint Dempsey you would struggle to make a case for any other US player making even the Belgium squad and I expect the visitors to edge this."
They won 4-2 and it was even easier than that sounds, the US gave the formline a "boost" by beating Germany a few days later, which means little, but the win was a nice confidence boost for a talented group of players who were missing a number of starters. They are a young group, who are still improving and I doubt anyone in Europe apart from Spain or Germany are stronger. Coach Marc Wilmots is eager to play down talk like that, but it is hard to see a weakness in his squad, today he has an injury to centre back Thomas Vermaelen, who has played in all of Belgium's round of qualifiers, to deal with, Daniel Van Buyten or Nicolas Lombaerts could replace him, or Vertonghen could shift across and Sebastien Pocognoli come in at left back, which gives some idea of their options. Eden Hazard has trained all week and they look set to be virtually at full strength otherwise, which means 6-7 players who would walk into most other European national teams, left warming the bench.
They need the win today to stay top of the group ahead of Croatia, who should see off Scotland with the minimum of fuss, whom they have still to visit. Belgium won the match in Belgrade 3-0 and Serbia arrive without several players including Zoran Tosic (49 caps -8 goals), Filip Djuricic (Benfica) ,Milos Ninkovic (Evian) and Matija Nastasic (Manchester City). This leaves them short of options, especially in midfield and upfront, where this young squad is very low on experience, average age of the four named strikers is just 21 and the quartet have 13 appearances and two international goals between them, actually the top scorer in the squad is Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic . Who is under warning from coach Sinisa Mihajlovic for venturing too far upfield, too often in recent group games! Tough looking handicap but four of Belgiums group wins have been by two goals or more and Serbia have failed to score in their three away starts. Again competition for starting places is very keen for the hosts, so any one who gets game time will be looking to impress.
Belgium -1AH ball
We discussed Belgium last week ahead of their big win in the US ....
"Both teams are heavily weakened by withdrawls, with the visitors missing Nicolas Lombaerts, Axel Witsel, Nacer Chadli, and Eden Hazard, plus Vincent Kompany and Christian Benteke are also likely to sit this one out. Hosts are without 7-8 regulars, four are set to join up with the squad after today and the US will be looking for a good run out, but under no circumstances do they want to collect any further injuries. They have a far more high profile macth with Germany at the weekend and three hugely important World Cup qualifiers between June 7th-18th and these two warm up games are viewed exactly as that. Of course, the same is true for Belgium to a degree, but this is aruably their strongest squad in history and huge competition for starting places in the World Cup qualifier with Serbia next week. Apart from Clint Dempsey you would struggle to make a case for any other US player making even the Belgium squad and I expect the visitors to edge this."
They won 4-2 and it was even easier than that sounds, the US gave the formline a "boost" by beating Germany a few days later, which means little, but the win was a nice confidence boost for a talented group of players who were missing a number of starters. They are a young group, who are still improving and I doubt anyone in Europe apart from Spain or Germany are stronger. Coach Marc Wilmots is eager to play down talk like that, but it is hard to see a weakness in his squad, today he has an injury to centre back Thomas Vermaelen, who has played in all of Belgium's round of qualifiers, to deal with, Daniel Van Buyten or Nicolas Lombaerts could replace him, or Vertonghen could shift across and Sebastien Pocognoli come in at left back, which gives some idea of their options. Eden Hazard has trained all week and they look set to be virtually at full strength otherwise, which means 6-7 players who would walk into most other European national teams, left warming the bench.
They need the win today to stay top of the group ahead of Croatia, who should see off Scotland with the minimum of fuss, whom they have still to visit. Belgium won the match in Belgrade 3-0 and Serbia arrive without several players including Zoran Tosic (49 caps -8 goals), Filip Djuricic (Benfica) ,Milos Ninkovic (Evian) and Matija Nastasic (Manchester City). This leaves them short of options, especially in midfield and upfront, where this young squad is very low on experience, average age of the four named strikers is just 21 and the quartet have 13 appearances and two international goals between them, actually the top scorer in the squad is Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic . Who is under warning from coach Sinisa Mihajlovic for venturing too far upfield, too often in recent group games! Tough looking handicap but four of Belgiums group wins have been by two goals or more and Serbia have failed to score in their three away starts. Again competition for starting places is very keen for the hosts, so any one who gets game time will be looking to impress.
Belgium -1AH ball
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