With the last fixtures in each group being played this week, the World Cup games are getting a bit more exciting. All the trash teams like Nigeria (no offence) who have unnecessarily taken up 90 minutes of our time are being swept aside and the teams we expected to progress are advancing to the round of 16. Let’s review the last games in group G.

Group G

There always seems to be hype around England going into any major tournament and rarely do they deliver.

Maybe it’s because I consume English media, what did I expect? Or maybe it’s because the English are delusional, makes more sense doesn’t it? Whatever it is, it’s pretty damn annoying.

In all fairness nobody, not even Englishmen, ever predicted England to win this World Cup. England coach Gareth Southgate has little to no pressure going into this tournament.

Belgium may have the best cast of individual players in the tournament, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bryne, just to name a few. This is clearly their ‘Golden Generation’ it would be a waste of talent if these group of guys don’t win at least one major trophy.

I expected Panama to play like they were just happy to be here and for Tunisia to be a tough team to play against but they wouldn’t have enough firepower to cause a threat to England and Belgium.

England 0-1 Belgium

In a game in which Roberto Martínez and Gareth Southgate were playing to lose both coaches fielded their B-teams.

Side note: I really hope this backfires on England.

A loss would guarantee a 2nd place finish which would see the team play a last-16 game against Colombia and Sweden or Switzerland in quarterfinals if they overcome the South Americans – whilst the winner of the group will come up against Japan and then Brazil or Mexico in the quarter-finals. The bracket also has heavyweights France, Argentina, Uruguay and Portugal.

The game had its moments but none of the teams were to eager to win the match. Belgium found their goal early in the 2nd half the game degenerated from then on.

Panama 1-2 Tunisia

For a game where both teams had nothing to lose this one was also a stinker. Few good chances were created and few noteworthy moments.

Tunisia came from a goal down to win the game in the 2nd half.

Interesting stats:

Tunisia’s victory over Panama means they have won just their second World Cup game and their first since beating Mexico in 1978 (3-1) in what was their debut in the competition.

Panama’s defeat means they have become the first nation since Serbia and Togo in 2006 to lose each of their first three World Cup games.