Martinez refusing to look too far ahead

Victory over England in Kaliningrad on Thursday means that Belgium find themselves in the same half of the draw as France, Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay, handing them a potentially very difficult route to the final.

However, the former Wigan manager has refused to get carried away, saying he is looking only to the next game against Japan.

"Now we need to focus on Japan, England will play Colombia and if you start thinking any further than that, you're risking a lot," said Martiinez.

"The path [to the quarter-finals] from a logistics point of view for us, it was easier to stay in Moscow because the next game would have been there with an extra day of recovery, but the only thing we are concentrating on now is playing Japan.

"You've seen that making predictions in the World Cup can be difficult. Germany are out of the competition, I don't think many people thought that would be a possibility, and I think this World Cup is very unpredictable.

"You need to look into yourself and how strong you can be as a team. We're not looking at paths, we're seeing how we can contribute everyone together and Japan is the only priority that we have.

"We played a very entertaining game in Bruges against Japan not long ago, I know there has been a change of coach since then but there hasn't been a real change in the squad.

"I think it is a really dynamic team, very well organised and technically structured. Japanese football is really strong and we expected a really competitive game. I don't think there will be big surprises when we face each other."