The world is a different place at the moment, isn’t it? Macro level, it’s same as it ever was, but for those of us going about our business on the micro, there’s a serenity and a security; a sense of wellbeing that football has our back, that whatever else happens in our days, at some point, unstoppable joy awaits.

But why? During the club season, the same rules apply – we have football almost every night, often of a higher standard and often involving teams that accompany us through life like a second skin– yet the World Cup touches in different places, building and immersing us in an entirely different reality.

The global nature of things is part of the answer, a trip through culture and diversity which teaches us about our planet and ourselves. But where club and international football diverge is in their grand project: the former deals mainly with identity, whereas the latter necessarily relates to freedom. Every nation has its struggles, too numerous to enumerate here, the emotion channelled on the pitch and in the stands, in homes and in town squares based, in one way or another, on humankind’s greatest, most essential desire.

Though this isn’t the place to go into the awful, painful situation in Iran, nor can we pretend it isn’t so. Suffice to say the people and players are going through it, every match freighted with meaning way beyond itself and last week’s 2-2 draw with New Zealand taking them to within a win of the knockout stages. Whether the team represent the people or the regime is not an easy question, but it’s unlikely many Iranians are ambivalent to it.

Belgium, meanwhile, tell a tale of unrealised potential, the gold-plate generation not so much elevating as enervating. They do, though, have one final chance at redemption, its old stagers – Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne, Youri Tielemans and Romelu Lukaku – backed by younger talents like Amadou Onana and Jérémy Doku who don’t carry the same pressure and wounds. They were disappointing in drawing with Egypt but, like all our teams, have room to grow and know it’s rare the one that plays best at the start is the same one dancing about at the end – sometime in 2029.

Kick-off: 12pm local, 8pm BST, 5am (Monday) AEST