Belgium (National Football)

The exciting Belgians get their World Cup campaign underway on Tuesday against Algeria in Belo Horizonte, looking to underline exactly why they’ve been tipped by many to take home the trophy.

Manager Marc Wilmots has a star-studded squad at his disposal that he’s ready to unleash onto Group H, starting with minnows Algeria.

With Russia and South Korea still to come, Belgium will be desperate to kick their tournament off with a big victory and really get the confidence levels high.

Venue: Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte

Date: Tuesday 17 June

Time: 5 p.m. BST/12 p.m. ET

TV Info: ITV1/ESPN

Live Stream: ITV Player/ESPN Player

World Cup Dark Horses Ready to Go

The Belgians will feel like they’ve had to wait an age to kick off their World Cup in Brazil, with so much excitement preceding them in Groups A to G.

However, with the form that Belgium are in and the incredible squad power that they have behind them, it looks as if it’s all going to be worth the wait.

Eden Hazard, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Kevin Mirallas, Romelu Lukaku and skipper Vincent Kompany are all raring to go in Brazil, with the latter taking to Twitter to voice his excitement:

Having such a wealth of talent on the field means that Algeria won’t be able to focus their attention on a particular Belgian danger man, as assistant coach Nourredine Kourichi explained—per FIFA.com:

“If we focus on Eden Hazard, we could have some nasty surprises. We know his qualities but also his weak points, but we can't focus especially on him, there are others, like Lukaku.”

However, Kourichi was quick to add that the Algerians aren’t going to just roll over in Belo Horizonte and explained that his side fancy their chances:

"You can't replace experience, but when you have the will, the recklessness and the talent, anything is possible. On Tuesday both teams have a chance, it's not a small team against a big team. Belgium are a good team but we have will and the ability to cope."

With nothing to lose, Algeria could indeed pose Belgium a threat on Tuesday and come into the tournament full of confidence.

According to SoccerWay, the Algerians have lost just one of their last 13 matches, winning 10 times during that run.

You have to say, though, Belgium will have more than enough about them to handle Algeria on Tuesday and come into the World Cup in a promising spell of their own.

As SoccerWay’s statistics show, Wilmots’ men have won three of their last four games and emerged through qualifying as one of very few unbeaten sides.

It’s crucial that the Belgians don’t take their Goliath status for granted and ease up against Algeria, but with Wilmots in charge showing the kind of grit in management that he did as a player, the chances of that are incredibly slim.

As both the Netherlands and Costa Rica have shown us, you just never know in a World Cup, but this is one game where the favourites won’t falter.

Prediction: Belgium 3-1 Algeria

Sometimes wonderkids fulfil their potential and reach the top. Other times, the deadly grip of expectation becomes too much for them, and they fail to live up to what was promised by their apparent talent.

A player like Messi belongs to the first category. Touted as Argentina’s saviour from a very young age, the little striker is now generally regarded as the best player in the world. 

A player like Bojan Krkic, Messi’s team mate at Barcelona, belongs to the second category. He too was believed to have the potential to become the best. After spending a season at Ajax on loan, he is now unsure of his future.

The Belgian national team is, of course, full of young, talented players, and out of all them, perhaps Kevin de Bruyne is the player most deserving of the "wonderkid" label.

But even though he’s been playing top-level football for a few years now, it is still unclear to which category the former Chelsea player belongs.

Enter the World Cup in Brazil, where De Bruyne will get a chance to leave his journeyman days behind him and finally join the rest of the world's wonderkids-turned-superstars.

It would be the end of a journey that started in early 2012, when De Bruyne moved to Chelsea from Belgian side Genk for a reported fee of around £7 million, as per Sky Sports. 

Stepping into the limelight of Premier League football, De Bruyne was immediately hailed as an amazing prospect. But football has a knack of proving age-old cliches to be true, and thus it turned out that great pressure came with the great expectations attached to De Bruyne’s transfer.

De Bruyne did not get much of a chance in Chelsea’s first team before he was loaned out to Werder Bremen in Germany. There, he seemingly made a good impression on Jose Mourinho, who had just returned to Chelsea. 

Undoubtedly under the impression he had managed to prove himself, De Bruyne returned to London. But once again, he didn’t get much playing time.

In January 2014, De Bruyne left Chelsea and joined German side Wolfsburg for a reported fee of €20 million, as per The Guardian.

There De Bruyne seemed to free himself from the shackles that kept him from getting the playing time a youngster needs. At Wolfsburg, the playmaker’s potential finally got a chance to truly blossom.

Meanwhile, it seemed like Belgium boss Marc Wilmots had never lost his faith in De Bruyne. Making regular appearances in the Belgian national team, De Bruyne became a pivotal player in the team Wilmots was forging to take part in the World Cup in Brazil.

During Belgium’s preparatory friendlies, the "Rode Duivels" experimented with different players, but De Bruyne was given ample playing time. Functioning as a No. 10, he was given the creative freedom he needed to truly show his qualities. 

When Eden Hazard cut inside from the left wing, De Bruyne would drift out wide, giving midfielders like Moussa Dembele and Marouane Fellaini the opportunity to bomb forward from behind him.

Against Luxembourg, Sweden and Tunisia, De Bruyne’s positional awareness and tactical intelligence impressed the most. No wonder Wilmots built his Belgian side around the playmaker.

At the World Cup, a lot is expected of the young Belgian team. Some analysts are even tipping Belgium as dark horses to win the tournament.

As one of their key men, De Bruyne will undeniably play a crucial role in his country’s campaign. After a successful second half of the 2013-14 season at Wolfsburg, the playmaker must now do it on world football’s biggest stage. 

And with Belgium’s fluid midfield seemingly built around him, the conditions are perfect for De Bruyne to do just that.

At the World Cup, he’ll finally get the chance to show the world that the "wonderkid" label was not just an empty promise.

With many of their young and incredibly talented players currently active in the Premier League and other major competitions, Belgium have been the subject of much excitement ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Whether or not the Belgians will actually go far during the tournament remains to be seen, but it can’t be denied that a lot of the excitement surrounding the “Rode Duivels” is grounded in truth. Picking someone from their defence, midfield and attack, one or more star players can be named.

But with all this talent in the squad, it’s difficult to decide, at first glance, what the Rode Duivels’ main strengths and weaknesses are. It’s even possible to argue that there are no apparent weaknesses—especially when just focussing on the first XI.

In this regard, the fact that this generation of Belgian players has not yet played in a major international tournament doesn’t help matters. How will these players react when the pressure is on, and how will they perform against some of best teams in the world?

Looking at the Belgian team ahead of the World Cup, how do we know our eyes are not deceiving us?

In terms of goals, a lot is expected of Romelu Lukaku, who scored four goals in Belgium’s three preparatory friendlies. But three of those goals came against Luxembourg, a nation who can’t be compared to the opposition the Belgians will face during the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Eden Hazard’s form is still surrounded by question marks, which has led manager Marc Wilmots to state that he will replace the winger if he plays badly, as per Fifa.com.

At the back, a similar sense of duplicity might be at play. On the one hand, defenders like Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany and Arsenal veteran Thomas Vermaelen make Belgium’s defence seem enviable, even to the best teams.

But look a little bit closer and you’ll see that Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld, solid centre-backs who play for Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid respectively, are often played out of position to compensate for the Rode Duivels’ lack of natural full-backs. 

The prevalence of the full-back is often cited as crucial to the way modern football is played. While full-backs still have to mind their defensive duties, they are often tasked with providing width during the attacking phase of play.

In that sense, the position of full-back is a specialist position. With Belgium playing natural centre-backs in this specialist position, there is a chance they will find themselves exposed against teams that boast world-class wingers.

But while some of the initial excitement about Belgium’s attack and defence might have to be curbed, there is all the more reason to be enthusiastic about the Rode Duivels’ midfield. There, raw talent is regularly backed up by performance. The players’ intelligence and ability to fluidly adapt to the tactical roles mapped out by Wilmots play no small role in this.

There’s the playmaker, who often drifts out wide when wingers like Hazard and Mirallas cut inside from the flank. Then there’s the central-midfielder, who often bombs forward from deep, especially when the playmaker moves away from his central position. Then there’s the anchor, who guards the defence and intercepts balls misplaced by the opposition.

Even with these roles mapped out, Wilmots has plenty to choose from. Tottenham Hotspur’s Moussa Dembele, for example, has played as the playmaker and as the central midfielder. FC Porto’s Steven Defour has adequately replaced Axel Witsel on many occasions, and should the situation require it, even Marouane Fellaini can be moved around within this setup.

Looking at Belgium’s midfield, our eyes do not deceive us. In fact, it may well turn out that they haven't informed us enough.

Contrary to the Rode Duivels’ defence and attack, the midfield hides few inadequacies beneath its apparent class and ability. During the World Cup, it may well manifest itself as Belgium’s key weapon. The only question that remains is: Will this weapon make up for their Achilles' heel at the back?

On paper, there seems to be a wide gap between the top two teams in Group H and the bottom two.

Belgium and Russia are favored to advance into the knockout round, while South Korea and Algeria are projected to be left behind.

But the World Cup isn't played on paper and South Korea, in particular, has shown it can rise to the occasion on the world stage.

Belgium is a 4-7 favorite to win Group H, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, and is also a popular dark-horse pick to win the World Cup at 18-1. An injury to star striker Christian Benteke dampened the hype, but Romelu Lukaku should be able to shoulder the load upfront in his absence.

From goalkeeping to defending to midfield, Belgium is stacked with talent, and it has depth to help off of the bench as well. If Lukaku and the rest of the forward group can pick up the slack in Benteke's absence, this team is capable of making a deep run.

Russia has always been known as a strong attacking squad, and now, under head coach Fabio Capello, it has a strong defense to go along with that attack. That defense conceded only five goals throughout qualifying, turning what was once a weakness of the team into a strength.

Aleksandr Kokorin leads what should be an effective attack for Russia heading into World Cup action. A wager on the Russians to win Group H would pay 9-4.

While Belgium and Russia come into the group looking very strong, South Korea won't be an easy out at 15-2 to win Group H. The squad has advanced out of its group in two of its last three World Cup appearances and will try to do the same again here in 2014.

Bayer Leverkusen's Son Heung-min is a 21-year-old striker with excellent finishing talent who could make a name for himself sooner rather than later on the international stage. South Korea is slight underdogs to Russia to open the tournament June 17.

Algeria (22-1 to win Group H) figures to finish at the bottom of the group, but the team is by no means a pushover. There is plenty of young talent on the roster that has been developed through a stronger professional league on the homefront.

Algerian soccer seems to be headed in the right direction, but the question heading into this World Cup is whether or not the Algerians can get a head start on the future with a surprise result or two.

Stats, odds courtesy of Odds Shark and WorldCupOdds.net