World Cup 2018 - Game 63 - Two disappointed teams meet in a meaningless game, Belgium beats England 2-0

I still wonder why FIFA even has a third place game. What does it matter who finishes third? I get that the third place team gets more money, but it's only a two million dollar difference. Why not not meet each other half way and give each semi-final loser twenty-three million dollars and send them on their merry way?

Looking at the starting line-ups, you could see the strategy of the two clubs. Belgium wanted to win it, so they had a line-up similar to that against France. Gareth Southgate wanted to give some guys some playing time on the big stage, so his line-up was quite different from the previous game. There's nothing wrong with wanting to give some players World Cup experience. This is the perfect game to do it because the result really doesn't matter.

Belgium got things started at 4'. They went on a break with Romelu Lukaku passing to a running Nacer Chadli who did what he does best and crossed the ball to a charging Thomas Meunier right in front of goal. He got a leg on it and it was 1-0. England was not ready for that. Speaking of Chadli, he's killing it with crosses. He can do it from both sides. I have a feeling he'll be playing on a bigger club than West Brom soon. At 70, Eric Dier had a sure goal for England cleared off the line by Toby Alderweireld. Eden Hazard shut the door at 82'. He got behind Phil Jones and Kevin De Bruyne fed him with a lovely pass. Belgium ran all over England and could have scored two or three more goals.

Belgium finish with their best ever World Cup showing. Fourth place is England's best result since the 1990 World Cup. Both teams look poised to go to the next level in the future. Belgium will lose some veterans, but they have plenty of young up and coming talent. England is very young and should have a similar team at the next EURO and World Cup.