World Cup 2018: Belgium vs Japan prediction, team line-ups, and preview as Romelu Lukaku looks to fire down surprise Round of 16 opponents

BELGIUM, a side fancied by many to do well in Russia, take on Japan for a place in the quarter-finals.

The Red Devils are packed with Premier League superstars and from the off have looked like a side to be reckoned with.

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They started with a 3-0 win over Panama before thrashing Tunisia 5-2 – a game in which Romelu Lukaku took his tally to four goals for the tournament and Eden Hazard scored a brace.

The final game of the group stage was a strange 1-0 win over England in which both sides played a reserve team. Adnan Januzaj scored a fine winner and will be hoping to keep his place in the team.

Japan did well to emerge from a tough Group H – mainly thanks to their opening 2-1 win over a Colombia team that were reduced to 10-men very early in the game.

In their following game they draw 2-2 with Senegal thanks to a late equaliser from Keisuke Honda. That result proved enough to take them through as they lost their final match 1-0 to Poland.

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Belgium will be heavily fancied to progress, but as Japan’s game with Colombia proved, anything could happen.

Best bet: Lukaku has looked on fire and in the mood for goals so far and the Manchester United striker will be hoping to fill his boots against Japan. Back him to score and Belgium to win 3-0 at 18/1 with .

Possible line-ups:

Belgium: Thibaut Courtois; Jan Vertonghen, Vincent Kompany, Toby Alderweireld; Axel Witsel, Kevin De Bruyne, Yannick Carrasco, Thomas Meunier; Dries Mertens, Eden Hazard; Romelu Lukaku

Japan: Eiji Kawashima; Hiroki Sakai, Maya Yoshida, Gen Shoji, Yuto Nagatomo; Makoto Hasebe, Gaku Shibasaki; Genki Haraguchi, Shinji Kagawa, Takashi Inui; Yuya Osako

Opta stats:

• Belgium have won only one of their five encounters with Japan (D2 L2), although that came in their last meeting in November 2017 (1-0, goal by Romelu Lukaku).
• Belgium and Japan’s only previous World Cup encounter was in the group stages of the 2002 tournament. They drew 2-2.
• Belgium have reached the knockout stages of the World Cup for the sixth time in their last seven participations, the only exception coming in 1998. They will be looking to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in their history after 1986 and 2014.
• Belgium have never kept a clean sheet in their 11 knockout games at the World Cup, losing eight of them (W2 D1). Also, five of their last nine knockout games have gone to extra-time, but only one has seen a penalty shoot-out (v Spain in 1986).

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• Belgium scored more goals than any other team in this year’s World Cup group stages (9). They were also one of three teams to win all three of their games (with Croatia and Uruguay).
• Belgium are unbeaten in their last 22 games (W17 D5), their last defeat dating back to September 2016 against Spain (0-2). As of the end of the group stages, only Spain were on a longer run amongst the 32 teams at the 2018 World Cup (23 games).
• Japan have failed to score in five of their last six World Cup games against European opponents (W1 D2 L3), with their only goals coming in a 3-1 victory over Denmark in 2010.
• Since making their World Cup debut in 1998, Japan have alternated between getting knocked out in the group stages (1998, 2006, 2014) and reaching the round of 16 (2002, 2010, 2018). They have so far never made it past the last 16.
• Japan’s two previous knockout games at the World Cup have produced only one goal, for Turkey in 2002 (0-1). The other game ended 0-0 after extra-time against Paraguay in 2010 with Japan losing 5-3 on penalties.
• Romelu Lukaku has scored 23 goals in 20 appearances for Belgium under manager Roberto Martinez, scoring four goals from four shots on target at this year’s World Cup. Alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, he was the only player in the group stages to score with his right foot, left foot and head.
  Since 2010, Keisuke Honda has scored (4) or assisted (3) seven of Japan’s last 10 goals at the World Cup. He has one goal and one assist to his name at the 2018 tournament despite playing only 38 minutes.