Belgium vs Estonia

Belgium and Estonia go head-to-head at the King Baudouin Stadium in a seemingly routine World Cup qualifying task for the home nation.

Belgium’s wait for their first major international accolade goes on as FIFA’s best-ranked nation suffered a 3-2 defeat to France in last month’s UEFA Nations League semi-finals. However, ‘De Rode Duivels’ have been nothing short of outstanding in the current World Cup qualifying campaign, winning five of their six Group E fixtures so far (D1) to take firm control of proceedings in this section. Another commanding qualifying campaign is further confirmation of Belgium’s tendency to boss their qualifying groups, having lost one of their last 46 qualifiers for major international tournaments (W39, D6). Barring a once-in-a-lifetime upset, Belgium should make light work of this fixture and maintain an almost perfect H2H record against Estonia (W6, L1). Since a 2-0 defeat in 2009, the Belgians have won their subsequent three H2Hs by an aggregate score of 15-3.

On the other hand, despite beating Belarus 2-0 at home in October, Estonia have fulfilled their status as group whipping boys so far, losing four of their six 2022 World Cup qualifiers (W1, D1) while conceding an average of 4.00 goals across those losses. Though Estonia’s efforts to develop into a legitimate qualification candidate suffered an epic failure, the visitors can find comfort in the fact they’ve kept a clean sheet in their last three internationals on foreign soil (W2, D1). Since the turn of 2021, five of Estonia’s six away matches have seen one or both sides fail to find the net in games garnering under 1.5 total goals. That’s a stark contrast to their last two visits to Belgium, as both have featured 5+ goals and both teams scoring.