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KAZAN, Russia – Just seconds from the end, the ball came to Neymar in the space, 20 yards away. Belgium led 2-1, but it was shot, its players exhausted, too drained by this step to make the most vague effort during a counter-attack. If the match had been extended, there would have been only one winner, and he would wear yellow and blue. Neymar, who was only irregularly involved, took his place and unleashed a hair curler. Maybe it could have been a fraction closer to the post, but while his shot was aligned towards the goal, Thibaut Courtois, who had already made a series of jumps, jumped to his left, extended a long black arm and, with his long fingers gloved black, the shot of the ball above the bar.
In context, it was a stunning backup. Courtois sprang to his feet, clenched his fist and roared. There was still time, theoretically still a chance for a Brazilian equalizer, but at that moment the match was won and Belgium was on their way to a first semi-final of the World Cup in 32 years.
Belgium had remained hooked. For most of the second half, he had resisted a siege. Courtois was magnificent. Vincent Kompany was in front of him and, perhaps more surprisingly, Marouane Fellaini, the Manchester United midfielder, a bag of elbows who fought fiercely and played with great positional intelligence. The second part concerned the effort and the desire and threw bodies on the way.
The first had been rather different, a test less courage and resolution than capacity. At the end of his career at Everton, Roberto Martinez was almost ridiculed as a director who could not organize a defense, whose ideas failed in the same way again and again. Still, he had a major tactical surprise. On the outside, the three backs, Fellaini and Nacer Chadli, heroes of the comeback against Japan in the last round, became a 4-3-3 with Kevin De Bruyne in fake. It was an undeniable tactical triumph.
"When you play against Brazil, you have to get a tactical advantage," Martinez said. "We had to be brave tactically, the players had to believe, it was about tactical execution, we had to be compact, we had to stop Neymar and Coutinho and Paulinho's races.
" players gave us that. This gave us a period when the opposition does not know how to cope. Tonight, I am the most proud man of the earth. I gave players a very difficult tactical plan. Brazil is better suited to the second half. Then, it's not a tactical game, but a game of heart, belief, conversation, all the aspects that you have to show to be a great rowing. Kevin De Bruyne scores for Belgium against Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup "/>
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