Wales - Belgium

Wales will meet Belgium in the quarterfinal of EURO 2016.

With Iceland Wales is one of the biggest surprises on this tournament. They managed to beat Slovakia and Russia in the group phase, while they were lucky to get Northern Ireland for opponent in the last 16 phase so here they are in the quarterfinal. However I think their chances in this game are not so big. It is true that they were in the same group in qualifications and they managed to beat them in Wales with 1-0, while in Belgium it was 0-0, but since then Belgium raised their level of play a lot and managed to make a record of 10-1-2.

Their styles of play are totally different. Wales playing in 5-3-2 formation and they usually wait their chances from counters. Only against Northern Ireland they were more offensive and played in 3-5-2 formation, but I think they will return to 3-5-2 formation in this game as it will be too risky for them to play like they played against Ireland. So their probably line up for this game will be:

Wales: Hennessey, Chester, Williams, Davies, Taylor Gunter, Allen, Ledley, Ramsey, Bale, Vokes

On the other hand Belgium played all their matches on this tournament in 4-2-3-1 formation and they should play in same formation. They only have Vermaelen suspended and he will probably be replaced by Ciman so their probably line up for this game should be:

Belgium:  Courtois, Meunier, Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Nainggolan, Witsel, Mertens, De Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku.

After poor start of the tournament and defeat from Italy in the first round Belgium improved their play a lot , especially offensively, they won their last 3 matches scoring 8 goals in total, while they also managed to keep a clean sheet.  They are very strong offensively with great Lukaku upfront and Mertens, De Bruyne and Hazard behind him. It is also very important for them that Hazard again looks like in his best days and he played really well against Hungary where he scored a goal and make one assist. In that game we have seen how much he is important for them.  So with his creativity in play  I think Belgium will manage to break Welsh defensive wall and I expect their win here.

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