Lukaku, Belgium welcome Brazil challenge

KAZAN, Russia (AP):

Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku won't be heard complaining that his team's reward for winning its FIFA World Cup group is ending up in what appears to be the far harder side of the draw and meeting five-time champions Brazil in the quarter-finals.

Friday afternoon's game in Kazan brings together the two highest-ranked teams left in the tournament following Germany's early exit. Brazil is ranked second and Belgium third. Whoever win play either France or Uruguay.

At a news conference yesterday, Lukaku said Belgium's disappointing experience at the 2016 European Championship showed nothing should be taken for granted in football and that Brazil will provide a "benchmark" for his team.

"If you want to achieve something, you have to fight for it every time," said Lukaku, who has impressed at the World Cup with four goals and is second in the Golden Boot race, behind England's Harry Kane, with six.

"Everyone was saying you should come in second (in Group G) ... but look at the European Championship when we had the same route as England now and things went wrong straight away."

At Euro 2016, heavily fancied Belgium were considered to be on the easier side of the draw to make the final but ended up being knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Wales, which was in its first major competition in nearly 60 years.

England, which came second behind Belgium in Group G, has arguably ended up on the easier side of the draw after the two sides made big changes for their final group match, which Belgium won 1-0.

Belgium rallied from two goals down to beat Japan 3-2 in the round of 16.