Tired England unequaled for the quality of the best of Belgium

There is no doubt that there are potentially English players of the same caliber as the Belgians, but the Southgate XI, averaging 25 years, has at least two years behind his more experienced opponents. euphoria of the first semifinal of the World Cup of the national team in 28 years, the last two games have been a little more like the evening out of expectations. There were five changes in the team that lost the semifinal against Croatia, and Southgate was more open to the fact that some of its players were not in a position to play.

He said that his players had not been able to train in the two days following Croatia's match and he showed in their departure, behind in four minutes to a goal that went from the hands of Thibaut Courtois to the back of the net of England in a few seconds.

that Belgium could control the game after that and even though they did not have the majority of possession, they never really seemed to lose the advantage over England.

It was a quiet afternoon for Harry Kane although Romelu Lukaku The six goals of the Englishman at the head of the Golden Boot race, and the Manchester United man missed a few opportunities.

Loading

He played twice at De Bruyne, and twice his good move wa s dropped by a sloppy touch. When he was replaced after the hour he disappeared straight into the tunnel.

England had its own problems, with Danny Rose in the camp instead of Ashley Young and beat the ball by Thomas Meunier for the first goal in four minutes. He came out at half-time and Raheem Sterling also [.] 1965-19002 Hazard looted the second goal when England was lying on the counterattack, an unavoidable inevitable that 39 he finished by getting away from Phil Jones as he did the FA Cup final a few months earlier.

Belgian players were forced to gather around the signaling proclaiming their third place, a bit timidly, as it was a team that had greater aspirations.

Did not they? After defeating England in Kaliningrad in the last group match, maybe Belgium would have played in the final against France on Sunday in Moscow.

Roberto Martinez's players were certainly dangerous yesterday. Courtly to Nacer Chadli, who found Lukaku in the center and then headed for the left wing

. on the blind of Rose and the Belgian just need something on the center of Chadli to score.

Loading

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was part of this England team instead of Dele Alli who came later, and he There were moments of the Chelsea player, but never enough to change the perceptions that he drifted in and out.

There was a race in the past byli Chadli, who would later be injured, and Jan Vertonghen. Sterling lined up Kane on the edge of the area and the shot was not as precise as the one we were used to.

On the other end, Lukaku was replaced shortly after his second heavy contact from a De Bruyne shot, although the attacker was back for the presentation of the medal. Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard came and England did better for that.

They were still vulnerable to counter-attack with De Bruyne leading the charge. Eric Dier chipped Courtois when a release in the Belgium defensive line let him in but Toby Alderweireld took the ball off the line.

Loading

They never gotten so close. There were some headaches, but frankly it was Belgium's counterattack which was the most extraordinary, especially a change between De Bruyne and Lukaku's substitute Dries Mertens, which created another opportunity for Meunier

In the end, Belgium broke through, when De Bruyne found the left channel for Hazard and a leg pulled in that direction by Jones – turning as he did – he was not able to cut the thread on the left side.

Hazard was eliminated, beating Pickford with a misleading shot inside the post.

Loading

It was just a moment when the overwhelming quality of this particular pair reminded England of how much there was had a way to go – much farther than what appeared to be a few days earlier when Russia 2018 was open and there was still an improbable firing on glory

The Telegraph, London [19659027] [ad_2]
Source link