FIFA World Cup 2018: Belgium scores over England
England suffered its first World Cup defeat against Belgium in the FIFA World Cup on Thursday. The defeat, however, did not affect the qualifiers from group G as both England and Belgium were already assured of berths in last 16 even before the start of the game.
In the last group G game, Tunisia beat Panama 2-1. Though the result had no bearing on qualifiers from the group, yet it witnessed eighth "own" goal in this World Cup.
England's 0-1 defeat against its European opponents Belgium was its first in three World Cup encounters between the two countries. the first had ended in 4-4 draw while the second gave England a win. Otherwise, in 21 matches between England and Belgium, last time the latter won was in 1936.
The all-important goal in the game came from Adnan Januzaj in the 51st minute whose fantastic strike posted past English goalkeeper Pickford.
Statistically speaking it was also the first time that all games of England that end in 0-9 at the end of first half end in goalless draws. But today after the goalless first half, England lost 0-1.
Belgium will now play Asian challengers Japan while England will take on Columbia in pre quarter finals.
The Panama-Tunisia game was witness to the eighth "Own" goal of this World Cup. After Jose Luis strike, the ball took a wicked deflection of Yassine Mariah to get into the net.
Interestingly "own" goal has been the single largest scorer at the end of group matches with eight goals.
When Tunisia equalised through Fakhereedine Youssef in the 51st minute,, it was the 2500th goal of World Cup finals, a unique distinction for the Tunisian.
Wahib Khazri who scored the match winner for Tunisia became the first player of his country to score two World Cup goals.
The second Tunisian goal came in the 66th minute.
