Andy was at a number of the group stages matches in America and with six European countries making up the last eight, who better to run the rule over the quarter-final ties?
QF2 | Spain vs Belgium
Los Angeles | Friday 10 July | 8pm UK
Andy: “Belgium, well they've done it without the big guys, really. If you think about the way they approached the USA game (4-1 win in Round of 16), obviously all the talk was about Folarin Balogun beforehand, and I think Belgium were quite comfortably second favourites going into that, which is quite strange when you look at their recent histories in international football. The way that they approached the game - the tactical plan was absolutely spot-on. Rudi Garcia, who I realise is not everyone's cup of tea as a coach, has done a great job. He did a really great job in that game. It was such a break from the previous performances that had been really unconvincing. The amazing thing, of course, is that he made some really brave picks. Okay, Romelu Lukaku you kind of have to leave on the bench at the moment, because he plays so little club football but, again, that gives them a little bit of edge, the fact that they can bring him off the bench in the last 20-30 minutes or whatever. I think that's a bit of an advantage to them."
“Belgium were great against the US and I think they'll give Spain a more difficult game than Portugal did in the Round of 16. Spain only won 1-0 in that, but it didn’t feel for a lot of it that Portugal were really trying to score. It was one of the most disappointing games of the World Cup, really. Belgium will be more of a test. It does feel that if you compare it to the World Cup in 2010 when it was based on defending by keeping the ball, Spain are maybe not too different to that. They're going to be difficult to score against. They're going to be difficult to even create good chances against. I wonder how Belgium will approach that. Maybe they can try something else. You kind of feel that the fact that Spain aren't conceding goals, and the fact that you still feel there's loads more to come from Lamine Yamal, they're the team that there’s more to come. I’d like to see even more from France, these next games will ask more questions of them. With Spain, it feels like we haven't really scratched the surface. There's loads more to come, especially if Yamal really catches fire. So, I would expect them to win this, but not by much.”