Belgium look sharp
Panama no easy game – Martinez
Sochi – Roberto Martinez can’t wait to lead an outstanding Belgium side into the World Cup as they prepare to take on Panama in their opening game today.
Ranked third in the world and boasting what is frequently labelled a golden generation featuring the likes of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium have come to Russia with a considerable weight of expectation on their shoulders.
They are strongly fancied to progress to the knockout phase as winners of Group G, despite being drawn alongside England, and so it would be a major upset if they slipped up against a side making their World Cup debut.
“I’m excited. I see the players work, I see them in training, and they are just desperate to perform for the fans in Belgium,” Martinez said.
Belgium’s results under Martinez have been excellent, with last Monday’s 4-1 friendly win over Costa Rica in Brussels meaning they are unbeaten in 19 matches going back almost two years.
The majority of his squad either play or have played in England, but for now Martinez is only thinking about Panama. “Getting to the World Cup has been a great result for Panamanian football. I am not expecting an easy game.”
Improving on quarterfinal exits at both the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 has to be the aim, but Belgium’s preparations have not been aided by defensive injury problems.
Both Thomas Vermaelen and Vincent Kompany are struggling for fitness, and Martinez can make a change to his 23-man squad.
Manchester City skipper Kompany is not expected to be available before the match against England due to a groin complaint.
‘‘ We have strikers who are quite capable of scoring
Novgorod, Russia – Sweden captain Andreas Granqvist insisted a goal drought in their warm-up matches would have no impact on their World Cup campaign as they prepare to play their first Group F game against South Korea today (2pm).
Since upsetting Italy in November’s playoffs, Sweden have scored once in four games and go into today’s match at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium without a goal in more than five hours of play.
“These were friendlies which are different to a World Cup game. Some of the teams we played against were ranked top 15 in the world and they didn’t allow us many chances to score from but neither did we allow them to get many chances,” Granqvist said.
Sweden lost 2-1 at home to Chile and 1-0 in Romania in March and this month played out a goalless draws at home against World Cup finalists Denmark and Peru.
“We have strikers who are quite capable of scoring, we have others who are very important to our attacking game and I hope we have kept all of that for tomorrow [today] and we score lots of goals,” Granqvist said.
Sweden scored in all but one of their 10 qualifiers to finish behind France and ahead of the Netherlands in the standings, before going on to beat the Italians 1-0 over two legs in the playoffs.
“We’ve worked more on our attacking game but scoring will also depend on what our opponents allow us to do, how we set up our chances and how we finish,” coach Janne Andersson said.