Hair we go: Everton midfielder Fellaini will line up against England on Saturday

 But anticipation is building ahead of the World Cup qualifiers for Brazil in 2014 because young players are maturing and lessons have been taken from mistakes made early in the Euro 2012 campaign.

 Belgium opened that qualifying with back-to-back defeats by Germany and Turkey and drew 4-4 at home to Austria. They would finish third with 15 points, two fewer than Turkey, who lost in the play-offs, but manager George Leekens was thought to be making reasonable progress before he stunned the Belgian FA by quitting for Club Bruges, earlier this month.

Fears have since surfaced that the soaring expectations may not be helping their search for a new manager because some coaches are hiding from the challenge of utilising such gifted players

 Marc Wilmots will select the team against England, having stepped up on a temporary basis after serving as assistant to Leekens and his predecessor Dick Advocaat.

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