Garcia Says Belgium Have Full Squad for Senegal World Cup Knockout Clash

SEATTLE, United States (AFP) — Belgium manager Rudi Garcia has said his players approach their World Cup round-of-32 encounter with Senegal in stronger physical shape, with full availability across the squad raising morale before the elimination round.

“Before this game against Senegal, we are lucky to have everyone available and that’s a good thing because it was not the case for the first three games,” Garcia told reporters in Seattle on Tuesday.

“Everyone was not 100 percent unfortunately or everyone was not completely fit. But this is over.”

Belgium opened their campaign in Group G with back-to-back draws against Egypt and Iran, then secured first place after a 5-1 victory over New Zealand.

Romelu Lukaku, Belgium’s all-time leading goalscorer, featured for barely an hour for Napoli during the past club season because of a persistent hamstring problem, yet he has contributed from the substitutes’ bench at the tournament.

Jeremy Doku was absent for the second group match to be in London for the birth of his son, while Charles De Ketelaere also missed the goalless draw with Iran owing to a knee issue.

“Jeremy, Romelu are getting better. Charles, I think that his problem is over as well,” Garcia said, pointing to a brighter mood within the camp.

“We wanted to end first in the group and this is what we did,” Garcia said. “I wish we had won more games, all the games, but we’re not going to go back in the past. What matters now is that we progressed out of the group stage.”

Focus has shifted to Senegal, with Belgium conscious that mistakes carry far greater consequences now that the competition has reached the knockout phase.

Atalanta attacker De Ketelaere noted that Paraguay’s surprise defeat of Germany on Monday demonstrated how unpredictable this stage can be.

“I don’t think it matters who is the favourite,” said De Ketelaere.

“It matters that we have confidence in ourselves and that we are sharp tomorrow to just go win this game, because yesterday showed us that to be favourites or not, it doesn’t matter.”

“We need to be alert and sharp to win the game.”