Belgium vs. Canada Betting Tips: Two picks for Group F encounter at World Cup 2022
There are four games to choose from on a bumper Wednesday of World Cup action and the pick of the bunch looks like it could be Belgium’s 7pm clash with Canada at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.
Tipster Joshua Jones is on hand to provide a full match preview and his two best bets...
Ranked 2nd in the world by FIFA, Belgium will be looking to get their campaign off to a flying start by ruining Canada’s first finals appearance in over 35 years.
Despite their world ranking, Roberto Martinez’s side are only 9th favourites in the World Cup Winner Odds - with concerns over an ageing defence and a perceived tournament fatigue among their squad.
The Red Devils had the oldest squad at Euro 2020 and haven’t changed much since then (other than all being at least a year older) with the side that started against ltaly in the quarters having an average age well over 30.
Belgium lost their only warm-up game against Egypt despite fielding an XI very close to the one that will start here, and they were beaten home and away by the Netherlands in the Nations League earlier this year too.
Despite all of that, Belgium boast arguably the best player in the world right now and he can run the show all by himself when he’s in the mood.
Likely to start in the two behind the striker in Belgium’s 3-4-2-1, Kevin De Bruyne really can do it all - and he’s enjoying (statistically) one of his best seasons ever.
The Manchester City maestro has 13 assists to his name already - averaging one every 113 minutes - and will be the key if Belgium are to have a successful World Cup campaign.
Canada aren’t here to make up the numbers though, and will fancy their chances of causing Belgium’s slow back-line serious problems in transition.
Manager John Herdman has been pretty flexible in a tactical approach that has seen Les Rouges rocket up the world rankings and they made light work of their qualifying campaign.
Not handed a bye, they dominated the first round by winning all four of their games by an aggregate score of 27-1 before beating Haiti 4-0 over two legs in the second round.
Canada then won the third qualifying phase - beating out the five sides that were handed a bye, including 2026 co-hosts Mexico and the USA - losing just twice and boasting an unbeaten home record.
Team News
There are huge question marks when it comes to injuries here, with key players likely to miss out for both sides.
Belgium’s all-time leading scorer Romelu Lukaku hasn’t featured for club-side Inter Milan for more than half an hour since August and looks set to miss his side’s opening pair of games.
Michy Batshuayi should step in to lead the line and Thomas Meunier should also feature, potentially sporting a Michael Myers-esque mask, despite missing five games for Borussia Dortmund after fracturing a cheekbone.
Canada’s biggest injury concern is worryingly also probably their best player, with Alphonso Davies having picked up a hamstring problem in early November.
The Bayern Munich full-back - who plays much further forward for his National side - missed both of Canada’s World Cup warm-up games but returned to training on Monday and should be in contention to start.
Belgium vs Canada Tips
One thing that should be expected whenever Belgium play is goals - with eight of their last 10 competitive matches featuring at least one for both teams.
The Red Devils have bagged in 96.6% of their competitive fixtures under Roberto Martinez, a run stretching back 58 games that has seen them find the net in 56 of them.
Even without Romelu Lukaku they should offer more than enough with the attacking trio of KDB, Hazard, and Batshuayi - the latter of them finding the scoresheet against Wales back in September.
Their much-talked-about back three is not one that will fill Belgians with confidence and could certainly be there for the taking if Canada are in the mood.
The Maple Leafs outscored all-comers in CONCACAF qualification, finding the back of the net 23 times in 14 games.
Cyle Larin (6 goals) topped the individual charts in that campaign but was closely followed by teammate Jonathan David (5), who has been knocking them in for fun at Lille over the last 18 months.
With nine in 15 starts already this season in Ligue, plus 15 and 13 across the last two seasons, he will be looking to display that form here.
Both teams to score is therefore the first tip for this game, available at 24/25 with SBK.
With four games down (at the time of writing) there have been three penalties awarded, and we’re looking to get ourselves on the right side of this trend.
A combination of a somewhat excitable VAR system and some slightly nervous referees has led to a few interesting decisions already at this World Cup and there are probably more on the horizon.
Taking charge of this one is CAF representative Janny Sikazwe and if you think you recognise that name, you probably do.
The Zambian official infamously called full-time in the 86th minute of the AFCON clash between Tunisia and Mali earlier this year, bringing the players back out for the final few minutes before calling the game early again.
Those mistakes were apparently the result of a combination of heatstroke and dehydration, and he’s actually very experienced - having taken charge of two games at the 2018 World Cup.
He dished out eight bookings in Belgium’s group stage clash with Panama in Krasnodar, but it’s penalties we are interested in here.
In high-profile games Sikazwe has not hesitated when pointing for the spot, awarding seven across his last 15 CAF Champions League games and awarding two in the aforementioned AFCON game.
You can back a penalty at 7/4 with William Hill.
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