Belgium 5 (Eden Hazard 2, Romelo Lukaku 2, Mitchy Bathsuayi 1): Tunisia 1 (Dylan Bronn 1 and Wahbi Khajri 1)  

In a goal feast match played with lightening pace fancied Belgium avalanched Tunisia 5-2 on way of confirming a berth to round of 16. With a huge goal difference they will all probably head the group as England may not be able to keep pace with all round ability of the brilliant Belgians. They have strong skilful players all over the place –under the bar, deep defence, mid field and very competent marks men. They have already issued strong warning to other favourites. 

They say from the space Belgium looks the brightest of all countries. Now after two round matches of World Cup 2018 Belgium look the brightest and the most impressive team of the tournament. Among the huge fan following of Rrazil, Germany, Spain and Argentina teams like Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal are looking great. 

Long before the tournament kicked off my younger son Khondkar Shafayet Shariaz advised me to write about Belgium as one of the favourites .He regularly watch EPL and La Liga and other European Leagues. I did not take that very seriously. But after watching two matches of Belgium I am of the opinion that this is a team which would go deeper in the tournament. They have super athletes and very skilful players. They will grow bigger and better with every game. I am not sure even England in the group can match them as well.

The Match: 

In an exciting first half we have had between Belgium and Tunisia. Belgium, with Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne completely ran down Belgium’s defence, and took early advantage. But Tunisia refused to bow down and continued to attack. It almost paid off with Bronn scoring a goal for Tunisia to get them back into the match. But he was soon stretchered off with knee injury, and Tunisia’s attack strayed off again. Eden Hazard successfully converted the penalty, but the highlight of the day remained Romelu Lukaku, who scored twice to take his World Cup goals tally to four from two matches equalling with Ronaldo of Portugal. 

7 minutes into the match, Belgium shoot into the lead through a smartly taken penalty of Hazard (1-0) .He was fouled inside the box by Yousaffi. 

At 16th minute Lukaku made it 2-0. Mertens opens up Lukaku inside the box and and Lukaku extends his goal tally in this World Cup to three. No mistakes from him, he uses his strong left foot to score. 

Undaunted by two body blows Tunisia also counter attacked as the match stepped into fourth gear. Bronn reduced the margin in the 19th minute making it 2-1. A few minutes after the goal, Broon got injured and had to leave the ground on stretcher.

Lukaku made it 3-1 before lemon break. Maaloul tried to clear the ball but found Kevin de Bruyne, who passed it to Thomas Meunier. Meunier found Lukaku right inside the box. Lukaku used his strength to get past the defenders and swiftly clears it past Mustapha for his second goal in the match.

Second Half

13th minute of the second half Eden Hazard further extended the lead to 4-1. Eden received a terrific pass from Alderweireld deep in Tunisia's half. He was on-side and ran to go one-on-one with Mustapha, scooped past him, and then hit it in the open net. 
Belgian coach replaced Lukaku with his Manchester United club mate Felanni soon afterwards as a matter of safety. He is a too big a fish to fry. Hazard was also replaced with Batsuay soon afterwards. 

After missing few half chances Batsuay scored making it 5-1. This could be his fourth goal. Good cross from Tielemans, and Batshuayi ran inside the box to put it inside the back of the net with his left foot. 

Helpless Tunisia could get a consolation goal in the dying minutes of the match through Khaziri 5-2.

In our opinion this match showed to the rest of the soccer world how good planning and overhauling the domestic football format of an ordinary  team can transform the over all standard in a decade . Belgium in early 2000 was looking down the barrel .Now they are looking great to challenge the best of the best. They have already set the imagination of many soccer pundits in fire.

If they can maintain this momentum they are likely to reach semi final at least.

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

Tunisia: Farouk Ben Mustapha, Yassine Meriah, Syam Ben Yousef, Dylan Bronn, Oussama Haddadi; Ellyes Skhiri, Anice Badri, Ferjani Sassi; Fakhreddine Ben Youssef, Wahbi Khazri, Naim Sliti

BDST: 2200 HRS, JUN 23, 2018
SI