On Wednesday at the World Cup, we’ll see one of the tournament favorites, England, taking on underdogs DR Congo in Atlanta. The hosts USA take on Bosnia, and the Senegal vs Belgium clash is a match of two teams that have yet to fulfill their expectations this tournament. As always, we preview and predict every match.
England vs DR Congo (Wednesday July 1st in Atlanta)
There’s a degree fear and loathing for England when they take on DR Congo in the first knockout stage hurdle on Wednesday, indoors in Atlanta. DR Congo have put together a great tournament, a narrow defeat against Colombia their only negative result, as they stifled Portugal into a draw and then came back to comprehensively defeat Uzbekistan to secure a last 32 place.
England beat Croatia in a thrilling opening match 4-2, the momentum was real, and then it stalled in a big way, as they were held to an extremely dull draw against Ghana, unable to score, unable to unlock the Black Stars low block. Matchday 3 saw victory against Panama, fueled by Jude Bellingham’s great second half, as Panama hung around and kept it competitive before eventually becoming overwhelmed.
England are the far more talented team here, they will sit on the ball, they will have the vast majority of the chances, but DR Congo are capable at counterattacking and are willing to defend all day if that’s what it takes to pull off this significant upset.
The squad choices for England will matter significantly. Harry Kane remains their most important goal scorer but at times he’s been dropping back and hasn’t been able to get involved effectively. Jude Bellingham has been England’s best player, carrying the #10 role, but he’s often been without support, players like Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon have been ineffective at creating and breaking teams down. Tuchel tried Morgan Rogers and Rogers was invisible in the time he played. There are injury concerns around Reece James, who is unlikely to feature, and Jarell Quansah, this is a team missing Trent Alexander-Arnold in the squad right now.
You can’t fault the England defence, they have kept two clean sheets against teams that are likely to setup similar to DR Congo. This should be an England win as DR Congo with Yoane Wissa simply don’t create a ton of chances, but it’s not going to be without toil, someone has to step up and help Bellingham, and Tuchel should consider the bold move of playing two strikers, getting minutes for either Ollie Watkins or Ivan Toney, so Kane can play his ideal game.
Prediction: England 1-0
Belgium vs Senegal (Wednesday July 1st in Seattle)
We get a knockout stage clash between two teams who honestly had disappointing group stages to put it lightly. Belgium played too dull, offensively lifeless draws against Egypt and Iran, two teams who you would have expected them to beat. New Zealand were battered 5-1 on matchday 3, and as a result Belgium topped their group, but not with much confidence. Under Rudi Garcia, the Belgian forwards have played turgid football at times. Romelo Lukaku at his age is still inconsistent, capable of brilliance and missing clear chances in the same game.
Leandro Trossard has been their player of the tournament, the Arsenal player is key to whatever Belgium could do in this tournament, as Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne, and Youri Tielmans playing together has resulted in too much overlap at times. De Bruyne was expected to be the talisman, but he tries too hard trying to force plays sometimes and things crumble for the Red Devils.
In the back, Belgium inspires more confidence, Thibaut Courtois is still world class and gives them a real advantage.
Belgium will be underdogs if we see the version of Senegal that went out and got a 5-0 result to secure qualification against Iraq on matchday 3. Senegal looked much improved, after losses to great France and Norway teams where they were defensively disorganized. Veteran defensive leader Kalidou Koulibaly has been out of form and shambolic, and their star captain Sadio Mane is also starting to show his age. Belgium can score, Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr has three goals this tournament. This should be an open and free flowing game, both teams will want to get after it. Edouard Mendy hasn’t been great in goal for Senegal, and now he’s injured, that lets Yehvann Diouf put on the goalkeeping gloves.
Senegal don’t have a good matchup here unless they can figure it out defensively. Belgium struggles to unlock a low block, but should be able to defend enough to limit Senegal’s scoring. It’s quite possible this game goes to extra time or even penalties.
Prediction: Belgium 3-2 (after extra time)
USA vs Bosnia (Wednesday July 1st in San Francisco)
The United States believes they have the ingredients needed to be a World Cup dark horse and go on a run, but all that could fall apart quickly if underdogs Bosnia can get into this game. A draw against hosts Canada, and a routine win over Qatar was enough to get Bosnia in its first ever World Cup knockout stage. The heavy loss to Switzerland is a warning sign about their limitations, but all of the goals came late. Bosnia has maintained structure and managed to find goals this tournament, even without an elite defence. Kerim Alajbegovic has been one of the best players in this tournament.
Team USA with their first-choice XI hammered Paraguay in the opener, before keeping a clean sheet and comfortably defeating a good Australia side. Against Turkiye it was a 3-2 defeat, but without their starters, the defence leaked too many goals.
Mauricio Pochettino’s USA has more firepower, if fit, Christian Pulisic leads the attack and can feed Folarin Balogun all game. Matt Freese has proven to be capable in goal, and at 38-years-old Tim Ream is an underrated defender. The US will get at this game, and Bosnia doesn’t strike enough defensive confidence to win in all likelihood, but nerves could be a factor for the hosts.
Prediction: United States 2-1
Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images
