International Friendly – Belgium vs Egypt: Preview & Betting Tips

Belgium will continue their preparations for the 2018 World Cup when they take on Egypt at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on Wednesday night.

The Red Devils were held to a 0-0 draw by Portugal at the weekend so Roberto Martinez will be looking to get back to winning ways with victory tomorrow evening.

Belgium then face Costa Rica next Monday before flying out to Russia where they’re due to face Costa Rica, Panama and of course, England, in the World Cup group stages.

So no doubt Gareth Southgate will have his scouts in Brussels on Wednesday night to keep a close eye on the opposition as Belgium and England are the red-hot favourites to progress to the knockout stages.

Egypt are also going to Russia but they’ll be without star man Mohamed Salah for this game after he picked up a shoulder injury during Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid last weekend.

Team news

The loss of Salah will be a big blow to Egypt but their focus is to get the attacker fit in time for their World Cup opener against Uruguay on June 15th.

As for Belgium, they’ll be without captain Vincent Kompany after he limped off against Portugal with a muscle problem so he won’t feature against Egypt.

Betting tips

A quick look at the 2018 World Cup betting odds shows us that Belgium are the 11/1 sixth favourites to win the tournament, despite being ranked third in FIFA’s official rankings, so it’s no surprise they are the favourites to beat Egypt.

You can get odds of 8/25 on a Belgium win while the visitors are the 17/2 outsiders. I fancy the hosts to win this one but we’re going to have to find more value from somewhere.

The Red Devils scored a record 43 goals during qualifying and they can boast talent like Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard so I think they should get a few goals. Total goals of over 2.5 at odds of 4/5 looks a solid bet.

I think Belgium should get 2 or 3 goals but am backing Egypt to get themselves on the score-sheet too so a 3-1 Belgium win looks tempting at odds of 11/1.

Lukaku should be given a chance to prove his fitness after recently recovering from an ankle injury that hampered him during the closing stages of the Premier League season and I like the look of him to open the scoring at 14/5.

If we back the Manchester United striker to score first in a 3-1 home win then we get excellent odds of 17/1. That would be my outside bet for this game.