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Let's move on to Group H, where Belgium, Algeria, South Korea, and Russia play and try to gain profit from the Belgium-Russia match. Belgium, after a tense battle, defeated Algeria 2-1 (0-1), who surprised with a very dynamic game and strong fight, while the Russians, as expected, lost points against the rejuvenated South Korean team 1-1 (0-0) with a new young strategist at the helm. Let's move on to the future match, the importance of which is huge, especially for the Russian national team.
The Russian national team has a very strong strategist in F. Capello and nothing more, you can agree or not, but all players play in the Russian championship, which in Europe in terms of strength is only in 6-8 place, and their advancement to the Euro 2008 was a fluke, the team was coached by G. Hiddink, and players like Pavlyuchenko, Arshavin, Kerzhakov, and Zhirkov were rising stars, but as we saw, they quickly faded after moving to the big European clubs and returned to the money-filled clubs of the Russian oligarchs, and the Russian championship itself can be called the Bermuda Triangle of football because players disappear from the football map due to huge salaries, disappear from the higher level and go to significantly lower levels, where they do not progress as players. This was followed by the 2010 World Cup qualification fiasco, a change of coach and qualification for Euro 2012, but again a fiasco in the group stage, and to the next one they qualified from a fairly easy group, with only one serious competitor (Portugal, Israel, Azerbaijan, Scotland, Ireland, and Luxembourg) and barely overcame it by 1 point, thus avoiding a confrontation against Sweden, which I think they would have lost. I will allow myself to throw a stone into the strategist's garden, in my opinion, strategists can be divided into 2 groups: Club and national team strategists. And F. Capello is not a national team strategist, but a club championship type strategist, and short-term tournaments are not his strong suit (from 1991 to 2007, coaching Milan, Real Madrid, Roma, Juventus, he won 13 titles including a couple of UEFA Cups). Another proof was the England national team, where he fled, covering himself with some stupid J.Terry story and an FA banishment of the captain's armband, well, agree, it's funny and it was like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, and fled right away became the head coach of Russia for huge money, even though he had declared that it was his last stop as a coach and after England, he would end his career. In summary, it can be said that the Russian national team is overrated, the strongest link is the coach, and the players are of average level and only those players are saved because many play together and the composition of the national team has practically not changed for several years.
Belgium, called the black horse, is a young and not fully matured national team, and its peak should come after the Euro 2016, and I think this team will bring a breath of fresh air over the next 10 years, but not in this championship. It was always strange that the Netherlands is in football elite, while their neighbors are just average occasionally qualifying for major tournaments, but the time has come for Belgium to shine (something we probably won't have in Lithuania for another couple of decades). Belgium defeated a very strong qualification group and finished 1st without losing any game and only finishing two games as draws and outperformed the 2nd place (Croatia, Scotland, Serbia, Wales, Macedonia) with an average age of 27. Which is the peak in football, but many leaders are younger than the team's average age. Most of the players play in very strong European clubs, and there are not only key players there but even the leaders of the teams (Kompany, Hazard, Lukaku, Mirallas, Mertens, Courtois, and others). Only three players play in Belgium, while the rest are from England, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, and Russia: Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Zenit, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Napoli. The team is coached by R.M. Wilmots, a legendary Belgian football player, who started his coaching career in 2003 and coached Shalke04 for a year, then moved to Belgians Sint-Truiden, but left after half a year and turned to politics, but even there, not finding a place, in 2009 started working as an assistant to Diko Advokat in the national team and in 2012 was appointed as the head coach, and as we see, the results are very good so far.
In the Belgium-Algeria match, there was a lack of confidence at least at the beginning, perhaps due to too much attention to the team and the pre-labeled "black horse" label, although they conceded first after 11 minutes but took over the game and beat Algeria 2-1, although the score could have been higher, and looking at the statistics, it seems that one team played (control 65%, shots 16 vs 3, corners 7 vs 2). Russia showed very poorly against the rejuvenated South Korea (1-1), and if we only look at the numbers, it seems that Russia played against an equal opponent, although the opponents in the qualification passed Iran forward and this only proves that South Korea is not a very strong team at the moment, but the game was better, more interesting, more memorable than Russia's, and the statistics are as follows (Control 48%, shots 16 vs 10 corners 4 vs 4). Although the importance of the match is greater for the Russian team (1 point), Belgium (3 points) can secure a place in the next stage, or even first if South Korea does not defeat Algeria. So it can be said that both teams will aim for victory, of course, Belgians can play cautiously on defense, and I think that's how they will play, waiting for Russian mistakes that must be exploited, and while playing attacking football, spaces open up and since the offensive potential of the opponents is very strong, Russian defenders and midfielders may not be able to stop the quick/technical/strong Belgian leaders in time. It should be a dynamic and beautiful game, but at the same time a tough game with a victory for the Belgian national team.
Verdict: Belgium 2-0 Russia
2014.06.22 19:00
Prediction: Belgium wins
Topsport/Orakulas @2 reliability 7/10
TonyBet @ 1.96
WC2014 statistics:
Predictions: 3
Won: 2
Lost: 0
Cancelled: 1
Total: +15.5
We would also suggest taking more than 2 goals with a reliability of 10/10 from TonyBet @1.55, but this time we go for a higher odds.
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