Gameday in Al Rayyan for the round 1 of the group F between Belgium & Canada.

Belgium will be without key striker Romelu Lukaku who will miss the first two games.

Canada will have Alphonso Davies very doubtful. I don't expect Canada to risk him for this game.

Belgium qualified for the World Cup with the rank 1 in front of Wales & Czech with 6 wins & 2 draws for 25 goals scored & 6 goals conceded. They just lost a friendly against Egypt but they didn't play serious at all and didn't want to risk any injury.

On their side Canada qualified for the WC with an impressive campaign with the first rank in front of Mexico, USA & Costa Rica with 8 wins, 4 draws & 2 losses for 23 goals scored & 7 goals conceded.

I expect my country to win but of course I'll be objective and I'll be careful compare to 2018 where we were at our best level. Without Lukaku it's a problem but in front we have some great qualities with Doku, Trossard & Openda who are great young. Michy who is more experienced, I'm not a big fan of him but usually in WC he performs well. The biggest problem of our team will be defensively one more time. According to the last press conference, Martinez will use Alderweireld & Vertonghen. I'm not a big fan of that because they are becoming old and slow against a team like Canada with some young players with good speed it might be complicated but his point is to put experience in the team. I hope that he will of course use Faes or Theate and not Debast. Martinez confirmed that Eden Hazard will start, he isn't getting a lot of minutes since a long time now as in Real Madrid they don't count on him but he still trains with them and is fit enough to play 60'.

Midfield is our best part of the field led by Kevin De Bruyne who is in the best form of his career, Witsel will start at 100% next to him. We will have players as Tielemans, CDK, Onana, Dendoncker etc.

Canada is a great young talented team with players as Buchanan who plays in Belgium, Jonathan David their key player who plays in LOSC, Larin who also plays in Belgium. Their problem will be defensively where they showed weaknesses against Japan on their last friendly. Miller will be in big trouble against Belgian's offense for this game.

I expect my country to start well for this World Cup, at the end they have the best qualities of the group and they need to start with 3 points to not be under pressure.

I expect 2-0 or 2-1.