England — Belgium, the Gijon 1982 with a different perspective
Gijon 1982, final round of Group 2 of the World Cup, West Germany need a win by 1 or 2 goals to qualify along with their opponent Austria with Algeria the last side of the triangle finishing their last game against Chile with a 3–2 win the day before. After 10 minutes Horst Hrubesch managed to open the score for West Germany, and now with both teams qualified, the game was technically over with non of the sides wanting to score any further goals, as they already know that this scoreline would make them pass the group stages together. Disgrace of Gijon, knowing predetermined results, that affects your performance throughout a game, after this FIFA changed the rules of the group stages, making the final round games of the groups played at the same time.
Fast Forward 36 years, Kaliningrad, Russia. England Vs Belgium, a game much anticipated as both sides filled with stars who hypothetically play in the same league, and in a group that included Panama and Tunisia, this was supposed to be the face off that would determine who will win the group. But here begs the question, do they want to win the group ? Unlike Gijon 1982, there isn’t a third side who would be affected, however predetermined results from other groups will affect the game, let’s get into it. England are on 6 pts +6 GD 8 GF, on the other side Belgium are on 6 pts +6 GD 8 GF, according to the FIFA 2018 World Cup tiebreakers if England and Belgium drew the game with any scoreline, they will be level until we come down to the fair play points. England currently maintain 2 yellow cards, while Belgium have 3 yellow cards, so as things stand England top the group, and if there weren’t any cards in the game, England would top the group. However if both sides are equal on fair play points, a “Drawing of lots” by FIFA committe would take place.
Normally, topping the group is what you aspire for, but considering both halves of the brackets, England and Belgium would definitely consider a 2nd place finish. Who would want to be in a half that contains Portugal, Uruguay, France, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and one of Senegal, Colombia or Japan, keeping in mind that some of these so called big teams have under performed, and there are a couple of sides that have been excellent through the tournament on the other side, such as Croatia and Sweden.
None of the coaches would publicly state that they prefer second place, and resting players would actually make sense as the team finishing top of the group will play on Monday in Rostov. The problem here is that both England and Belgium are playing the game knowing before hand every bracket in the tournament, another option other than “Drawing of lots” would be penalties, but what if the England-Belgium game was the first game of the group stages, and it ended in a draw, when will the penalties take place considering that the third round would be Belgium-Panama in Sochi, and England-Tunisia in Volgograd, two cities 421 miles apart.
Hopefully an exciting game emerges tonight, but considering all circumstances that will be highly unlikely, as predetermined results of other groups will affect the game, and how the game turns out might affect how FIFA view the knockout stages brackets in further tournaments. “Drawing the lots”, who even fancies that !
