England open their World Cup campaign on Monday with manager Gareth Southgate seeking to banish memories of dismal recent finals performances while Belgium’s “Golden Generation” kick off as dark horse challengers. England, winners on football’s biggest stage more than half a century ago, crashed out without a win four years in Brazil, and haven’t won a knock-out match in any tournament since 2006. Southgate’s young charges however come to Russia quietly confident after a solid qualifying campaign and encouraging friendly results against the likes of Brazil, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
They play Tunisia in the historic city of Volgograd on Monday evening knowing anything other than a win would scatter pre-tournament plans, with Belgium looming later in Group G. Southgate’s lack of experience was much fretted over when appointed but the former Under 21s coach has cultivated an atmosphere of unity and a determination to bury past failures.
“This team shouldn’t be burdened with that because they’re a fresh group, most of them have very few international caps, so the future is all ahead of them,” Southgate told reporters at the Volgograd Arena on Sunday. England captain Harry Kane, who is yet to score a goal in a tournament, has vowed an aggressive approach against opponents expected to defend in numbers. “First and foremost we are going to want to attack the game, we feel like we are going to have a lot of possession of the ball,” the Tottenham forward said. Belgium, meanwhile, enter Russia on more familiar ground: a squad stuffed with stars but questions over their manager.
Spaniard Roberto Martinez was a left-field choice to replace Marc Wilmots after Euro 2016 and the former Everton boss seems no nearer to solving the puzzle of getting Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne playing to their sky-high potentials in the same side. The boys from Brussels face Panama, Central America’s World Cup debutantes, in Sochi. Martinez on Sunday said Hazard was ready to light up a tournament in the same way as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo did with his stunning hat-trick against Spain on Friday.