Belgium vs Russia Prediction and Betting Tips
For the first competition day of Group B at Euro 2021, Belgium is going to face Russia in Saint Petersburg. Scheduled for June 12th, this match marks the return of the Red Devils in an international competition after the 2018 World Cup. Threatened with expulsion due to a dark history of doping, Russia should finally represent its colors during this Euro.
Belgium Betting Facts
Belgium caused a sensation at the 2018 World Cup by reaching the semi-finals before being eliminated by France. Taking first place in the UEFA rankings, Belgium is by far one of the best national teams of this generation.
Belgium is one of the big favorites of this Euro 2021. With its golden generation, the third from the last World Cup hopes to finally glean a trophy with this talented team. Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois are some of the world's stars, while the impressive form of Romelu Lukaku, who helped Inter Milan to become Italian champion after ten years but also to become Belgium's top scorer of all time with 59 goals, speaks a lot about the strength of this team.
Still, the problem for Martinez is the extended break for De Bruyne after the Champions League final with Manchester City and it is questionable how much he will be ready, while Eden Hazard has yet to return to form after a bad season at Real Madrid.
Russia Betting Facts
In contrast, the trend is much less optimistic for Russia. As another host of the championship, Russia will have a big task of reaching the knockout stage, and a big challenge will be to fill the gap left by the retirement of legendary goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. Indeed, the Russians have never really marked an international competition with their presence. The Russians have not won in the previous five matches at the Euro Cups, and the last victory dates back to Euro 2012 over the Czech Republic by 4:1. Russia ended up last in their group at the tournament in France in 2016 when fierce clashes between Russian and English fans in Marseille took over the team’s performance.
In 2018, however, Russia showed a much better face as they advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Cup after beating Spain in the 16th round. But can Russia hope for a win over Belgium in their first Euro 2021 match? From the view of its latest performances, it would seem unlikely that Russia will win over Belgium. Note that Russia has lost two of their last encounters to the Red Devils in the Euro 2021 qualifiers.
Belgium vs Russia Prediction
Belgium has never lost from Russia. They have 5 wins, 2 drawn. There were 16 goals in those 7 matches. On average, Russia scored 3.3 goals per match and Belgium.
For all the reasons mentioned in our review, it is clear that Belgium is the favorite to win this match on the first day of group B. Indeed, Belgium is much better prepared and has a much better team than Russia. The other good option for this match is betting on scored goals. Taking into account the statistics a good bet would be over 2.5 goals or even over 2.5 & both teams to score.
