Belgium shocked tournament favorite Brazil playing lively aggressive football and with a bit of favor of lady luck. Brazil went down first through a suicide goal and then De Bruyen scoring a brilliant goal off a Lukaku assists.
Brazil kept trying and trying but most were either saved by Belgium Goal Keeper or just missed the target. Many chances and half chances came their way. In football, it is goal that matters. Brazil failed to score at least three from potential scoring opportunities and crushed out from the world cup. Billions of Brazilian fans should console that they lost to a better team on the day. With the exit of Brazil World Cup 2018 is now all European affair. Bye bye Brazil, bye bye South America.
What a world cup it turned out so far! Germany, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Uruguay all went out and now Brazil goes home. Others did not play to potential but Brazil did and they must blame their luck also. Brazil was definitely unfortunate.
The two teams were so evenly matched that many termed the match final before the final. Belgium chocolate is liked as much as Brazilian Coffee all over the world. Belgium meets France in the all Europe seminal.
If you look from the space, Belgium appears as the brightest spot. A small wonderful country, very friendly, clean and beautiful. For some years, golden generation of Belgium were threatening to break big .Lukaku, De Bruyen and Hazard are three very dangerous forwards in leading Eurpean clubs. They are fast and furious, very quick in counter attacks and wonderful marksmen. They combine very well. Absence of Casimero created a little void in Brazilan mid field. It is from such midfield imbalance, Belgium broke the ice after surviving some very close calls. Brazil could be 2-0 up early on. But somehow Brazil could not score. From a goal mouth melle Brazil digested an own goal 1-0. Brazil kept on surging. But Belgium also unleashed some good counter attacks. From a Lukaku pass De Bruen scored a wonderful goal with a thunderous long distance strike making it 2-0.
Brazil kept pressing hard and opened the Belgian defence on many occasions in the second half. But somehow Belgium goal keeper could keep surging Brazilians at bay. The introduction of Renato Augusto added some spice in Brazil attack. He brought some life line for Brazil scoring in the 76thminute. But that was too late. Brazil went down 1-2.
Belgium won for the first time against Brazil in a major tournament. Their only other in against Brazil was in a Friendly Match in Brussels
Brazil won three out of four Championships between 1958 to 1970 .They did not go in 1966 when great play was strategically struck out with savage attacks on his legs. They waited for 24 years till 1994. Again between 1994 and 2002 they won two in three. Now they will have to wait another 20 years till 2022 for another crack.
The only previous occasion these sides met in a World Cup was in the round of 16 in 2002, with Brazil winning 2-0 en route to winning the entire competition.
Belgium has lost three of their last four World Cup meetings against South American opposition. This is their first win over Brazil in world cup.
Brazil played the quarter-final for the seventh successive World Cup tournament. They've only gone out twice at this stage in that run (vs France in 2006 and vs the Netherlands in 2010). This makes their third.
Brazil has been knocked out of the World Cup by a European side in each of the last three tournaments (vs France in 2006, Netherlands in 2010 and Germany in 2014).
Belgium have reached consecutive World Cup quarter-finals for the first time - they lost at this stage to Argentina in 2014.This is the first time they qualified for the semi final where they will meet France. If they play like what they have done so far we would see a new champion of FIFA world cup.
Belgium, a country with a population of only 11m, with just 34 professional clubs competing across two leagues — has produced a golden generation of footballers. The names roll of our tongues — Hazard, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Kompany, and more. Top quality talent; top drawer talent; talent that would make it to almost any starting XI.
Dhaka has double the population than Belgium. With millions of soccer crazy fan following why Bangladesh can not take a leaf out of Belgium?
Remember in 1988, when we were on training in Nethertland with Benelaux visa we visited the beautiful country few times. We remember Brussels CBD. We remember MoncaPease . We can imagine the Belgian party going there now.
Congratulations Belgium. Your brilliant football I am sure is going to earn world wide fan following soon. With Favourites gone we hope Belgium goes all the way through.
Brazil (4-3-3): Alisson; Fagner, T. Silva, Miranda, Marcelo; Paulinho, Fernandinho, Coutinho; Willian, Jesus, Neymar.
Belgium (3-4-2-1): Courtois; Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen; Meunier, De Bruyne, Witsel, Chadli; Fellaini, Lukaku, E Hazard.
BDST: 1029 HRS, JUL 07, 2018
AH
