Our prediction for this match:
All eyes will be on King Baudouin Stadium when Belgium and Greece face each other in a warm-up game. The Red Devils are seen as one of the main favourites to win the EURO 2021, but boss Roberto Martinez must warn his men against complacency. Belgium rolled over Belarus 8-0 in their last World Cup qualifier, which is surely giving fans a reason for optimism ahead of Thursday’s clash.
Man City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is likely to be rested against Greece following his participation in the Champions League final, while both Romelu Lukaku and Dries Mertens are pushing for a start. The Greeks, on the other hand, missed out on a place at the European Championship finals, and given Belgium’s attacking potential, anything but a routine home win would be a major surprise. Willem II attacker Vangelis Pavlidis is widely expected to lead the line for the visitors.
Highlighted Player (Romelu Lukaku):
Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli, born on 13th of ay 1993 is a Belgian player with roots form Congo. Lukaku played for several youth teams before he got picked up by RSC Anderlecht. After playing for only 2 seasons for Anderlecht Chelsea picked him up for around12 million euro.
Lukaku was never able to get a spot in the starting eleven of Chelsea and after playing for WBA he moved to Everton for approximately 35 million euro.Lukaku made his debut in February 2010 by the age of 16 and is one of the youngest players that player for the highest Belgian national team.
The biggest achievement of Lukakui is winning the Eerste klasse in Belgium and the English FA Cup. With his strength and goal scoring abilities Lukaku can be considered as one of the deadliest strikers of the world. Nicknames for Lukaku are Big Rom and the Tank.
Highlighted Team (Greece):
Former European champions Greece played their first official match on April 7, 1929, with the team suffering a heavy 4-1 loss to Italy in Athens. The Greeks booked their place at the FIFA World Cup finals in 1994 for the first time ever, but they failed to impress at the showpiece tournament in United States of America.
The Galanolefki were eliminated in the group stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup as well, but they made it to the knockout stages of the tournament in Brazil four years later. However, the Greeks were more than unfortunate not to book their place in the quarter-finals as they were beaten by Costa Rica on penalties. However, Greece did remarkably well to win the 2004 European Championship and that is considered the national team’s biggest success.
Otto Rehhagel outplayed the likes of France and Czech Republic in the knockout stages to set up a meeting with hosts Portugal in the title game. Thanks to Angelos Charisteas’ goal 12 minutes into the second half Greece won the European Championship.