France and Belgium are geographical neighbours, but at World Cups, they will meet only for the third time.

Their first meeting took place in 1938, when the tournament was held in France. There was no group stage at the time, and the competition started directly from the Last 16. In that round, the French defeated Belgium 3:1 and advanced to the quarter-final, where they lost to the future champions Italy.

The second encounter happened in 1986 - and it was the third place match. For France, the reigning European champions at the time, losing 0:2 to West Germany in the semi-final was quite a frustration, while for Belgium, making it to the top 4 was quite an achievement.

So the Red Devils relied on their best players, while France fielded a semi-reserve line-up as Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Joel Bats, Luis Fernandez and some other French stars were not willing to participate in a consolation game.

However, it was an entertaining match. Jan Ceulemans put Belgium in front in the 11th minute, but Jean-Marc Ferreri and Jean-Pierre Papin made the score 2:1 for Les Bleus already at half-time. However, the Red Devils did not give up and dominated in the second half, so Nico Claesen’s goal seemed logical.

The match moved into an extra time, where France tipped the scales to their side. The midfielder Bernard Genghini, who played his first match in the tournament, put France in front before Manuel Amoros converted a penalty, establishing the final 4:2 score.Unlike 1982, when they lost the third place to Poland, now France won the bronze. But the brilliant Platini generation were already going to retire, so it was Les Bleus’ last match at the World Cup before 1998 - in 1990 and 1994 they did not qualify for the final stage.

In their turn, Belgium went on to participate in every World Cup till 2002, but the fourth place in Mexico 1986 is still their best ever result. Now the Red Devils are already certain to repeat it - but they want to write history and move even farther.