Can England do a Croatia and win their first 3 games?
The Belgians have huge talent and tons of experience. We’ve beaten Tunisia and Panama and six of our eight goals came from set-pieces. We need more fluency in possession to go deep into the tournament. The character of the match will depend on whether the Belgians start De Bruyne, Hazard and Lukaku.
Could it be a high-tempo Premier League-type battle?
If England needed to win, it would be. Three weeks ago I thought this would be a very competitive game between guys who play for Spurs and Chelsea, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld kicking Harry Kane and Dele Alli up in the air. But it won’t be like that now.
With both teams on six points, how will England approach it?
We invented the sport and would never produce anything as dull as France 0 Denmark 0 because our DNA is very different from France. Our guys will be more up for it. So we will not lose.
Do Belgium have better players than Croatia?
Yes, clearly. But they didn’t have anybody playing for Real Madrid (Modric) or Barcelona (Rakitic). Its crunch time for this generation of Belgians. Vertonghen is a special defender and first played with Alderweireld at Ajax when they were sixteen. Eden Hazard’s not a kid, he’s 27. I think he’s too laidback to play for Real Madrid but he could prove me wrong. And I’d rather have Hazard in my team than the self-obsessed Neymar.
What has Fabregas been saying?
Cesc reckons Eden Hazard can be a Chelsea legend if he stays, the club’s best-ever player.
Why are there no British refs at this World Cup?
Not good enough. We shouldn’t be surprised. Although we know that FIFA will never give us a World Cup, I thought they’d use one of our refs.
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