BELGIANS TO EXPOSE ‘TIRED’ EXCUSE

IN Belgium’s last competitive match, against Cyprus, six of the starting line-up played in the Premier League, plus two more came off the bench. It would have been more had the game meant anything. So England’s pairing with Roberto Martinez’s team at the World Cup is interesting. In previous competitions, the exhaustion of England’s players after a gruelling Premier League season is often advanced as mitigation for underperformance. Here it can be no excuse if Belgium are hitting their straps. Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne (below) — in fact, almost all of Belgium’s key players should be equally fatigued. If they are not, then there must be another reason. Sven Goran Eriksson always complained his players were tired come tournament time, yet the 2002 World Cup final was the 62nd game of the season for Liverpool and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann, and he seemed to be breathing quite normally. Mesut Ozil of Arsenal appeared to be at no disadvantage entering extra time in the World Cup final in 2014, too — his 53rd game of the

season.