Belgium vs Tunisia
Venue: Otkrytie Arena
Kick off: 1pm
Belgium will close in on the last 16 of the World Cup with a victory over Tunisia in their second Group G clash this afternoon.
Roberto Martinez’s side cruised past Panama with a 3-0 victory on Monday, and another three points at the Otkrytie Arena in Moscow would seal their spot in the knockout stages should England not lose to Panama on Sunday.
The former Everton and Wigan manager was full of praise for Tunisia ahead of their meeting, and warned his players they will need to up their game.
“We respect Tunisia’s threat but they’re a team that need to come out and win the game, so they’ll make it very, very open,” he said. “In that respect, if we look after our performance, we’ll get settled into that sort of game.
“Tunisia has evolved. The players have surprised many teams. They are flexible and they are probably the most dynamic team we have faced. We need to be ourselves against them and do even better than what we did against Panama.”
Tunisia fell to a late Harry Kane header when they lost 2-1 to England earlier in the week, and manager Nabil Maaloul says he wants to rectify mistakes that were made in the opening game.
“We have to win. We have no choice,” he said. “Belgium are very strong but we are ready. We want to avoid the mistakes we made in the first match.
“Our side is capable of unlocking their defensive line. What we want is to get to the back of the Belgian line and do that quickly.”
