BELGIUM beat its fellow World Cup hopeful Egypt with an assured 3-0 win in Brussels on Wednesday.

Sticking with a three-man defense the Belgians, who are in Group G, the same as England, showed more cutting edge than in their goalless draw against Portugal on Saturday.

Romelu Lukaku, favored as starting striker over Michy Batshuayi, thumped home from close range in the 27th minute, after Egypt’s 45-year-old keeper Essam El-Hadary spilled from Eden Hazard.

Hazard then made it 2-0 11 minutes later after Yannick Carrasco cut the ball back from the goal-line before Batshuayi, on for Lukaku, set up Marouane Fellaini for the third in stoppage time to complete a sixth straight game without a win for Egypt, which was without the recuperating Mohamed Salah.

Belgium’s head coach, Roberto Martinez, had raised eyebrows by slotting Laurent Ciman into the place of injured captain Vicent Kompany. Ciman, who plays for Los Angeles FC, is officially only on the waiting list for Russia in case the Manchester City player, or Barcelona’s Thomas Vermaelen, are still injured.

“If those players are not in the squad, Laurent will be a straight replacement,” Martinez said, describing Ciman as a good fit for either injured defender.

The Spaniard also insisted he was giving Kompany and Vermaelen, who are training with the squad, time to prove their fitness and said there could also be roles for Dedryck Boyata and Leander Dendoncker, depending on the opposition.

Meanwhile Panama, which is also in Group G in what is the team’s first World Cup finals appearance, lost 1-0 to Norway. Bournemouth’s Joshua King got the decisive goal.

King chased down his own header and side-footed home in the fourth minute for his 13th goal in 34 games. Panama will head to the finals with just one goal from its five international matches in 2018.

They had only one shot on target in Oslo and it follows last week’s 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.(SD-Agencies)