Rabat \u2013 Belgium and Senegal have confirmed their starting lineups for their World Cup round-of-32 match at Seattle Stadium.<\/p>\n
Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia has selected Charles De Ketelaere as his central forward, leaving the country\u2019s record goalscorer Romelu Lukaku on the bench.<\/p>\n
Kevin De Bruyne, J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku and Leandro Trossard provide the attacking support, while Youri Tielemans captains the Red Devils.<\/p>\n
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw has also made several notable decisions, with Kalidou Koulibaly, Nicolas Jackson and Lamine Camara beginning the knockout match among the substitutes.<\/p>\n
Thibaut Courtois starts in goal for Belgium behind a defensive line of Timothy Castagne, Brandon Mechele, Arthur Theate and Maxim De Cuyper.<\/p>\n
Tielemans and Hans Vanaken will provide the midfield balance, with De Bruyne expected to operate in a more advanced creative position.<\/p>\n
Doku and Trossard start in the wide attacking areas alongside De Ketelaere.<\/p>\n
The selection means Lukaku will again be available as an option from the bench, where Amadou Onana, Alexis Saelemaekers and Charles De Ketelaere\u2019s other attacking alternatives are also available.<\/p>\n
Belgium: Thibaut Courtois; Timothy Castagne, Brandon Mechele, Arthur Theate, Maxim De Cuyper; Youri Tielemans, Hans Vanaken; J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku, Kevin De Bruyne, Leandro Trossard; Charles De Ketelaere.<\/p>\n
Belgium are expected to use a 4-2-3-1 formation, although their attacking players could regularly exchange positions.<\/p>\n
Koulibaly and Jackson benched<\/p>\n
Mory Diaw continues in goal for Senegal because first-choice goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is unavailable through injury.<\/p>\n
Kr\u00e9pin Diatta and Ismail Jakobs start on the sides of the defense, with Moussa Niakhat\u00e9 and Path\u00e9 Ciss completing the back line.<\/p>\n
Idrissa Gueye captains the Lions of Teranga and starts in midfield alongside Habib Diarra and Pape Gueye.<\/p>\n
Sadio Man\u00e9 leads Senegal\u2019s attack, with Iliman Ndiaye and Isma\u00efla Sarr completing the front three.<\/p>\n
Senegal: Mory Diaw; Kr\u00e9pin Diatta, Path\u00e9 Ciss, Moussa Niakhat\u00e9, Ismail Jakobs; Habib Diarra, Idrissa Gueye, Pape Gueye; Iliman Ndiaye, Sadio Man\u00e9, Isma\u00efla Sarr.<\/p>\n
Koulibaly\u2019s absence from the starting lineup is one of the biggest surprises, with the experienced defender included among Senegal\u2019s substitutes.<\/p>\n
Jackson and Camara are also available from the bench if Senegal require changes in attack or midfield.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabat \u2013 Belgium and Senegal have confirmed their starting lineups for their World Cup round-of-32 match at Seattle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,5693,14685,3206],"class_list":["post-25414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-sengal","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116846478363609093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}