Belgium win the battle against England but did they lose the war?

Belgium ran out 1-0 winners in the battle at the top of Group G and will face off against Japan next week. As for England they drop into the 'easier' side of the bracket and will come up against a dangerous Colombian side in the Last 16.

In the build up to the match the question on everybody’s mind was: do you really want to win? When you’re last on and you know how the brackets are shaping up, you hold somewhat of an advantage. Unlike those poor souls in Group A, Group G’s winners and runners up were already decided, the only thing to be decided was in which order.

For those of you concerned that neither England nor Belgium would want to win, you will be delighted to find out that’s exactly how it panned out. The team selections from both coach’s was a clear sign of what we were about to see. There was no room for Belgium’s star man Eden Hazard or the World Cup’s top scorer Harry Kane.

The biggest cheers of the first half were for two Belgium players picking up yellow cards – and said cheers came from the Belgian fans! The ‘Red Devils’ were behind on fair play points and a couple of extra bookings only further established their advantage. All this while England, without Jordan Henderson’s creativity in midfield, were pinging long balls up to Jamie Vardy and Marcus Rashford.

To their credit, while the fans were cheering the bookings, it was Belgium who were showing the most attacking intent. Jordan Pickford gathered a hopeful shot, almost, but he ended up spilling it into the path of Michy Batshuayi. The Chelsea striker poked it towards goal but Gary Cahill was there to clear it off the line. Calm down lads, you almost scored there is what surely passed through Roberto Martinez’s head. His opposite number, Gareth Southgate, was already writing out the punishment for Cahill.

All jokes aside, the second half started off with a much quicker pace and we finally saw a goal. Adnan Januzaj, who signed for Real Sociedad last summer, clearly hadn't read the script and cut inside far too easily before drilling an effort into the top corner. Belgium were winning – or losing, depending on what side of the fence you were sitting on.

Although a personal highlight was seeing Batshuayi picking up the ball after it hit the back of the net and smashing it against the post – and then it bouncing back and hitting him in the face. Ironically what the Belgian forward felt afterwards is what most of us who had watched the game felt: a tinge of pain with a side order of embarrassment.

Rashford was later sent through one-on-one, his moment to prove that he deserves to start ahead of Sterling or Lingard, but fired just wide. Courtois did get his finger tips to it but either way, if you want to establish yourself at the top level, you need to be taking those chances. 

England tried to win despite not turning to any of their star players. Southgate ignored the pleas of a desperate Kane, jumping up and down screaming ‘pick me, pick me’ and opted for Danny Welbeck. It didn’t have the desired effect. Or maybe it did. That was all she wrote for England and they had lost 1-0 and finished second.

We started the match asking whether either side would want to win. Now we have our winner, Belgium, and our loser, England, but it appears both sets of fans will claim victory in their own way. It’s been a strange end to an absorbing World Cup group stage.

We now have one day to catch our breath before the World Cup returns on Saturday.