Estonia fresh from Baltic Cup glory returns to international action this Thursday and they Welcome Belgium to Lillekula Stadium in Tallinn for a group E match of the FIFA 2020 World Cup qualifiers with kickoff at 21:45.
Estonia are from winning the Baltic Cup for the first time in 83 years and they should be with plenty of confidence going into tomorrow clash against the group leaders. Thomas Haberli’s side defeated Latvia by a score line of 2-1 to claim the regional tittle back in June.
Estonia will be looking to claim their first win or point of the qualifying campaign with Harberli hoping that his side will use the Baltic glory as motivation to bring some life into their World Cup qualifying campaign having endured a poor and disappointing start to the run.
They opened with 6-2 defeat from Czech Republic with Tomas Soucek bagging a hat trick before Belarus sinking them further with a 4-2 defeat showing just how poor Estonia are defensively as they conceded a total of 10 goals in just two matches. However, the hosts head into the match on the back of a surprising friendly win over Finland which stretched their winning run to three matches in a row across all completions. It will be fascinating to see how they fire against the top ranked nation worldwide.
Meanwhile Belgium’s golden generation that got them to the top spot in the whole word are yet to lift a major international silverware thanks to Italy who knocked them out of their favorable Euros in the quarterfinals.
However, the Belgians will be looking to move on quickly from their defeat and put all their focus on the World Cup itself and having already made a fine start to the qualifiers they will be looking maintain their unbeaten run in Group E where they lead with seven points after two wins and a draw in the qualifiers, including an emphatic 8-0 win over Belarus in their last group match.
The Red Devils should have a lot of ease past Estonia, a country they have beaten 8-1 before, with their squad having some of the best players in the world currently including Romelu Lukaku and Thorgan Hazard who are playing at the top of their game.
Estonia vs Belgium head to head
Both sides have met in six occasions since 2002 with Belgium claiming five victories while Estonia managed one win and there are yet to record any draws.
- Estonia 0-2 Belgium 09/06/17
- Belgium 8-1 Estonia 13/11/16
- Estonia 2-0 Belgium 14/10/09
- Belgium 3-2 Estonia 06/09/08
- Belgium 2-0 Estonia 11/10/03
Home
- Estonia 2-1 Latvia
- Finland 0-1 Estonia
- Lithuania 0-1 Estonia
- Sweden 1-0 Estonia
- Belarus 4-2 Estonia
Away
- Belgium 1-2 Italy
- Belgium 1-0 Portugal
- Finland 0-2 Belgium
- Denmark 1-2 Belgium
- Belgium 3-0 Russia
Estonia team news
Thomas Haberli called a 25-man squad for and all men are available for the selection against Belgium.
Belgium team news
Roberto Martinez retained his Euro 2020 squad with Albert Sambi Lokonga and Thomas Kaminski making the additions while notable absentees include Kevin De Bruyne who continues to struggle with an ankle injury and Doku is also injured.
Prediction and odds
- Belgium to win
- Goals over 2.5
- Romelu Lukaku to score
