No, after you: Why England and Belgium may want to be second

MOSCOW (Reuters) – To win or not win? Pull a shirt, or avoid yellow cards? England and Belgium are facing a riddle of the World Cup before Thursday's crisis in Kaliningrad – is it better to finish second rather than win Group G?

Coaches Gareth Southgate and Roberto Martinez downplay this. Yet a difficult start for Germany means that the winner of Group G is likely to meet the defending champions or a Brazil fears earlier in the knockout rounds. England and Belgium will have a better idea of ​​future opponents after Wednesday's matches.

Since England 's 6-1 loss to Panama on Sunday, the two teams will surely move from Group G to the round of 32 with, for the moment, identical points and goals for and against. A draw will give the first place to the one with the best disciplinary record.

If that was the case, a FIFA official would draw lots.

The second-placed player will also play two of the three knockout rounds in the finals in the comfort of Moscow – where Belgium has his side – as the winner will face thousands of air miles in Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Saint -Petersburg.

The coach from England, Southgate, is not sure of winning, it's an advantage: "We have to think about it," he said when we asked him if he could line up a weaker team against Belgium.

Like the Belgian Martinez, he will balance the regularity against the rest of the legs of choice and the playing time of others.

A late defeat for Panama cost England a goal difference, noted Southgate, leaving only their only advantage over Belgium for having picked up two yellow cards from the three Belgians.

"We are still leading the disciplinary field," Southgate told the BBC. "But we do not really know if it's going to be a benefit."

At the top of Group G, we play those who finish second in Group H on Thursday morning – Colombia, Senegal or Japan. Southgate said that he was pretty indifferent about it.

But if Group G's second spot had seemed to be a way towards a scary appointment in Samara with Germany in the quarterfinals, holders now seem unlikely to win Group F. Germany – or Brazil they triumph to win Group E – now more likely to stand in the way of the one who overcomes Group G.

Belgian Martinez insisted that he did not think about the issue. And he warned: "Football has a strange talent to punish you when you do not treat things professionally."

This is a sentiment shared by the English press: "Always dangerous to try to finish second while you think the passage might be easier," wrote John Cross of the Daily Mirror.

"Come disconnect, then you open to criticism."

Times' Matt Dickinson speculated on Twitter: "Then England plays for a draw against Belgium, then takes two sneaky bookings in the last 5 minutes to make sure they finish second and avoid Brazil / Germany QF.Not the style of Southgate. "

But in Le Soir de Bruxelles, Frédéric Larsimont said the Belgians, eager to improve their exit in the quarter-finals 2014, had thought about how to avoid meeting Brazil at this stage: "There are a, "he said," England ends first. "