Spain v Belgium

Spain : Simón; Porro, Cubarsí, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Ruiz; Lamine Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal.


Belgium : Courtois; Castagne, Ngoy, Mechele, De Cuyper; Tielemans, Raskin; Trossard, De Bruyne, Doku; De Ketelaere.

Belgium might just bore ya to sleep good luck staying awake.Bookies say not many goals

i will be watching Yamal. So far in this world cup, while the star players of other teams have stepped up, he's been a show pony

Jul 10, 2026 -- 6:57PM, SirNorbertClarke wrote:

Lukaku 1st half hat-trick off the bench!

Shrewd.

Surprised that overs is 1.80. I ain't touching that with a ten foot pole.

Abba. 1.8 over 2.5,  how is that suggesting bookies saying not many goals ?

Todays winner of the tdf stage was
BELGIUM
Maybe a clue

Backing a draw

This is going to be easy for Spain. Spain minus one on the handicap

mes conspicuous by his absence tonight, what's he been up to today?

Spain should win, but I've not been particularly impressed by them. Yamal is still not fully match fit/sharp, Oyarzabal has been pretty ordinary, despite the pundits inexplicably raving about him. Olmo has played well. Spain are not the team they were a couple of years ago, but (as Viera pointed out last night) France are better than 2 years ago. I'll be surprised if Spain get past France. Spain 2-0 is my guess.

DIE LINKE, spit it out!

Overs for me.

shaping up to be a good game early part.....

Yamal overrated. The Spanish Saka.

after 20 minutes the difference in price seems too long....

Another slow motion sh ite game

Underwhelming 1st quarter,too many loose passes by both teams.

Lovely job.

Courtois gone at the game.

1

Oliver having a shocker again.

God the commentator on bbc radio is dreadful
I can’t bear to listen to it

1-1

Try the TV, he's got Yamal AGS,MOM & Spain in 90 mins. Absolutely pathetic.

Overs backers in clover

Belgium looking very useful here. Spain price way too short.

Iv outa here dead level

im

abba, you on overs son?

Needed the goals,a lot better game.

Begium passing and timing been well out sort that 2 nd half ,they Got a chance , trossard needs to get his finger out as well

Another horror line-up from BBC: Cates, Richards and Rooney! Good job I'm winning, because BBC and ITV are doing their best to ruin this World Cup for me.

Is this the biggest match of the world  cup on Betfair. Over 14 million matched and it’s a only half time

once spain scored the 20/1 belgium was the bet even if only for trading as they have players on the pitch who can change things around....maybe that was a chunk of the turnover....

What time the Big fella coming on ,I wonder

if belgium take the lead spain could implode...

that should have been the moment...

Spain outright price staying stubbornly at under 6.0

Yes over for me one more ta

Not sure doku should have passed that

Belgium more of a factor in this now

Will not be surprised if Belgique nick this.

belgium going to nick this

yammal. use youre right  foot on occassions lad

Suzan Lamens replacing Courtois in goal.

ist time yammal crosses on right it was a shocker

murphy continue his 100% record of getting every call wrong and makes a kooont of himelf in the process,call an injured GK a cheat

Spain need to pull their finger out.

This could easily go pear shaped.

spain going all in here...will be vunerable on the break....

thats twice doc has fallen over and won a free kick...

Oyarzabal off, about time.

murphy think yamal done ome brilliant thing in the game,
MR MEMORY MAN would struggle to name one
he,s been absolute garbage

the sub Seys has played well.

Yamal, is a fecking show pony. Nothing seems to go for him match after match.

mug keeper

I just went to get a coke and heared the huge roar..

Thank f it was Spain.

Yamal has had two players on him all match, England players struggle to take one player on

Shocking effort from the Belgium number 17 - no attempt to close the shot down. Just watch him, literally just stood there!

Could be another goal

Spain hanging on

decent enough game...belgium probably have too many old players....spain v france will be a good game...

best side won , belgium done little 2nd half

Spain got lucky

TF for butter fingers Lammens

That was a tough watch.
Belgium qualifying would have been an almighty calamity.

yes,good game in the end, Spain well deserved it.

Lucky to get over second half was waste of time

Poor bus drives home empty, just a couple of bookies getting on.

Spain very unimpressive for such a favoured side. Lamal is woeful but gets MOTM type ratings for shooting straight at players. Their CHs are weak defensively.

He s not woeful come on if he got the space different story ok he can t kick the ball with his right leg which is a joke imo

He's been poor all tournament, may not be 100% fit but keeps on taking players on himself and showboating with tricks and no end product except blocked shots. Must be infuriating to play with.

Another excellent result as we see another petrified defensive side being KO'd The inevitable heavyweight showdown between the slick Spaniards and the ferocious French is upon us. Reasonably confident of seeing a great game, similar to what we got when they last met in Spain's Euro victory over them, as well as last year when they played in that Nations League affair where Spain went 4-0 ahead, only to be hanging on to a 5-4 in the end! Not expecting that type of goal crazy affair, but a minimum of 2 is on the menu.

Not impressed with Spain at all. The French will demolish 'em. France V England final.

but a minimum of 2 is on the menu.

1.32 odds. What a brave call

Spain been unimpressive?  They've been impressive to me.  Just not flamboyant.  Austria never got a kick.  Uruguay never looked like scoring despite a draw being pivotal for their qualification.  Belgium only had the one decent chance.  Portugal were 4th faves and gave them a game but were deservedly beat on all metrics.  XG 11.9  XGA 1.82  An XG multiple of 6.5

France have been impressive too but they've played weaker opposition.  Norway reserves Senegal and Morocco.  Flamboyant but their underlying stats aren't any better than Spain despite weaker opposition.  XG 14.54 XGA 3.82

They've been the 2 best teams by a margin

In the Belgium game, Spain were almost the same price to qualify at kick off as at 80 minutes

Don't think it's too relevant but the h2h since 2008 is Spain 7 France 2

Why are France 2.66 and Spain 4.5 then?

Well those are the prices now.  Let's see what the prices are come kick off

Belgium had a couple of Chances on the Break ending with poor passes , could have been a diffo result

found the 2nd half boring TBH , Belgium were paceless ,keeper spilled the ball otherwise would have been Xtra Time

I'm minus £10k on Norway.  Their outright price is miles out for a market this size.  I think most of the slack is in Spain's price and all the other prices are about right  I'm on them to beat England to cover that position.

rules for Some that was a penalty all day long , You have to ask what is going on , 9 Are covering VAR , that had to be given

i,d have a decent  bet on the spanish team danny murphy, been watching in the 6 games of  this world cup to beat france,i wouldnt have 50p on the spain everyone else on the planet has been watching,he just commentates as though he,s reading out the write ups in the panini sticker book,he,s the amey ryan of the football world,his comments bare no reality to what he,s watching,more to what the panini sticker book say,s he should be watching

nah, it was hit at him from a couple of yards away, not much he could've done to get his arm out of the way, imo.

I would argue that Senegal and Morocco are not weaker opposition than Austria and Uruguay. Quite the opposite, imo.

his own player kicked it /defle ted it at him,considered accidental under the rules,same as the idiot on bbc who thought it wasnt a back pass because it was a block,not the fact it was hit forward not backwards,tv jut to try and make controversey out of pretty simple basic decisions,like 2 above ,theres million of people on X/ocial media now convinced themselve mbappe wasnt a pen

France have been the best side even though it's true they haven't really played anyone of note. But the quality is there for all to see, clear favourites and can't see anyone stopping them.

Spain bore me to tears, they're the same tedious passing team they've always been only they've thrown a half fit Yamal into the mixer who often flatters to deceive. Uruguay were in complete disarray behind the scenes with Bielsa. Austria had a couple of decent chances against Spain but no real quality up front. I didn't see much difference with them and Portugal, two incisive passing teams cancelling each other out til Merino found a breakthrough in injury time. Nothing special here.

England's defence no where near good enough, heard someone say yesterday Konsa's been outstanding, he's been our worse defender and that includes Spence.  Pickford's been very good, only Guehi and even a half fit stones givens confidence at centre back. Though for this game v Norway, I really would play Burn left back just to push O'Reilly forward and take off Anderson.

Argentina look like they're just waiting to be put out of their misery, hovering over the trap door and eventually they will fall through, though with Manzambi out the Swiss have lost some real attacking guile and threat so they'll probably squeeze through that one again, but if they face England I wouldn't have any worries about them.


France v England seems the most likely final, with France winning but England would have a chance.

Kind Regards.

Des Portugal are better than Morocco 4th fave v 12th fave
Belgium are better than Senegal (they were even money and 3/1 when the two sides met)
Uruguay are better than Norway reserves
Austria are better than Sweden

They've faced tougher opposition.  It's not rocket science

"The quality is there for all to see"

I agree with that and that's my point.  I think the quality has been there with Spain too, but not everyone is seeing it.

Fair enough, Clyde. I disagree. Uruguay and Austria were 2 of the worst sides in the Tournament, imo. France are 1.7 vs Spain to qualify. So, should be an easy decision for you.

Outright prices of ko opponents

Portugal 9.8
Belgium 46
Austria 270

Morocco 60
Sweden 310
Paraguay 690

Uruguay along with Turkey had no luck whatsoever.  Don't agree they played badly.  Just very unlucky.  Austria were poor

only 2 games away so no reason why spain cant bore their way and us to sleep on their way to lifting cup but when we have
messi
alfie
kane
mbappe
scoring 30  between them why would anyone wanmt a team playing without a no 9 in a game deperate for more good no 9,s to win ?
spain punter,s aside,obviously

you know what to do then, clyde. GL with your bets.

Cheers Des.  GL to you too.

At the 2024 Euros Kane got 3 and Mbappe got 1. Haaland ofc got nil.  At the 2024 Copa America Messi got 1 and Lautaro Martinez got 5.

At the start of the tournament.  Orayzabal was pickem in h2hs v Haaland and Messi.  I would've backed him on both, had I not felt there were better bets and deposits were limited.  Lucky escape.

This tournament has been ridiculous with the goalscoring exploits of the main men.  Most surprised with Messi.  Expected him to be past it, but he's been quite superb.

Writing was on the wall with Uruguay

They had not played a warm up game in the lead up to the World Cup, Nunez had not played a competitive game for 4 months yet started the first match only to be subbed at half time because he couldn't run. Bielsa even called himself Toxic with Suarez in a press conference detailing what a poor man manager he is.

He wheeled a 40 year keeper out of retirement only for the keeper to make history, first ever goalkeeper to make 3 mistakes in a World Cup that led to a goal, and then he subbed him at half time after a mistake against Spain, the sort of mug move Igor Tudor would make

Think he's just a manager of his time, that high press he's known for is no commonplace, he falls down by being old school Brian Clough type who would be well out of place in todays game.

Going by goal expectancy they should have made the 2nd round but that's about it as they'd have faced Argentina.

Kind Regards.

Reminds me. I had Rochet in my Fantasy team but AI warned me ...

Short version: no confirmed starter exists yet. The World Cup is only just beginning, so nobody has “started” in goal, and Uruguayan media are explicit that the choice is not settled

My read, as opinion: Rochet is the favourite. He’s the incumbent No. 1, has Bielsa’s full-cycle backing, and is in regular club football at Internacional, whereas Muslera’s case rests on recent Estudiantes form and experience after barely featuring for the national team. But that’s an inference from the usage pattern — it is not confirmed, and Bielsa has a documented habit of surprises, so treat any “Rochet starts the opener” claim as projection until a lineup is published.

Denigrate Bielsa, but for sure he wouldn't have messed up Portugal's chances by picking Ronaldo

but that's neither here nor there, no manager would have done bar that Ronaldo fanboy Martinez