In the FIFA World Cup, England and Belgium will battle it out for the third-place play-off at Saint Petersburg today. The match will begin at 7.30 in the evening.
In the semifinals, Croatia defeated England 2-1 in Moscow and France beat Belgium 1-0 at St Petersburg. The final will be played between France and Croatia tomorrow. For Belgium, who have a collection of world class players, a win would be the nation’s best result at the World Cup. They finished fourth in 1986.
Apart from their earlier encounter in the current event, England and Belgium have faced off twice before at the FIFA World Cup: a pulsating 4-4 draw at Switzerland 1954 was followed 36 years later by a Round-of-16 encounter at Italy 1990, which was decided by a fine goal by England’s David Platt in extra time.
One more goal in the match against Belgium, and Harry Kane will be the highest scorer at a single World Cup since 2002: with a hat-trick, he would become the highest scorer since 1970.
