Eden Hazard of Belgium in action during the FIFA 2014 World Cup Group A Qualifier between Wales and Belgium. Croatia face Belgium on September 11, 2012. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Belgium and Croatia play the most interesting and evenly matched game of the round. Follow @SBNationSoccer
Belgium is not one of the world's footballing powers just yet, but they're well on their way. Considering the immense young talent in their ranks and their fairly easy qualifying group, Euro 2012 should be the last major tournament that they fail to make for around a decade. They play one of the most important matches of their qualifying campaign on Tuesday, at home against Croatia.
Slaven Bilic is gone, but Croatia's talent remains. They're clearly Belgium's biggest threat for a spot in the World Cup and looked comfortable, but not terrific in Ivan Stimac's first competitive match, a 1-0 win over Macedonia. Eduardo da Silva was surprisingly re-instated and started over Nikika Jelavic, but that didn't go so well. Eduardo was withdrawn for Jelavic after 63 minutes, and it took the sub just five minutes to score the winner. Expect Jelavic to regain his place in the starting XI on Tuesday.
Game Date/Time: Tuesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local
Venue: King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium
TV: ESPN Deportes+ (U.S.), Sportsnet World+ (Canada)
Online: ESPN3 (U.S.)
We'll have live coverage of every qualifier in our UEFA 2014 World Cup Qualifying StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.