Belgium are top of the FIFA world rankings but still waiting for that big title win. They begin Group B with a game against Russia with the match being played in St Petersburg. That gives the Russians home advantage but they know only full too well just how good their opponents are. These two teams were also drawn against each other in the Euro 2020 qualifiers. Belgium won all ten of their group games and put seven goals past the Russians. Three at home and four on their travels, so playing this game in Russia isn't going to upset them too much. The Belgians finished third in the 2018 World Cup and are through to the finals of the 2020/21 Nations League. They are unbeaten in their last nine games since a 2-1 away loss to England last year but it wasn't the strongest of line-ups put out by the Belgians.
The other two countries in this group are Denmark and Finland and Russia will hope to finish above them. They won all their matches in their qualifying group bar the two against Belgium. Eight goals were conceded by them in that group but they had seven clean sheets. Recent form isn't the best in the world or even Europe. They lost a World Cup qualifier in Slovakia and then drew an away friendly against Poland 1-1. Their final warm-up was a 1-0 home win over Bulgaria but it took an 84th minute penalty to get them that victory. They finished second behind Hungary in their Nations League group failing to win promotion to the top level. They have won their last two home games but had no wins in the three that preceded that. Back Belgium to get the win in this match.