- >>
- SPORT
Belgium popularly nicknamed, The Red Devils won the Third place in this year’s FIFA World Cup after defeating England with a score of 2-0 at the Saint Petersburg Stadium. With an early goal by Belgian defender, Thomas Meunier in the 4th minute and another by the captain, Eden Hazard in the 82nd minute of the match, The Red Devils firmly claimed the Third position which is said to be Belgian’s best-ever finish and performance at a World Cup.
England’s team led by Harry Kane had to face another painful defeat within a single week itself after their heartbreaking defeat in the semi-finals by Croatia this Wednesday. Belgian fans and supporters all over the world celebrated the victory and flooded the social media with tweets and posts:
After the win and getting the Man of The Match Title, Belgium Captain, Eden Hazard said, “ So happy and proud of the squad and the staffs. We will be back tonight in Belgium and then we will celebrate with the fans tomorrow in Brussels so I think it is a fantastic World Cup for all of us and we can enjoy now.” Talking about the next Qatar World Cup 2022, Hazard added, “ We want to do better than now so we want to reach the final in Qatar.”
Roberto Martínez, Manager of the Belgium team, said that the players deserved more credit than himself because in just two days they accepted his ideas and executed his tactical plan by sacrificing themselves. He said that Belgium deserved their historic World Cup finish.
After the match, Martinez said, “It’s all about that achievement. I think these players deserve that.” He further added, “What we have seen in this World Cup is that the players did not want to rely on talent anymore, they wanted to rely on working as a team, becoming a group of players that would do anything to achieve results.”
In the post- match interview, England manager Gareth Southgate speaking about the defeat and his team said, “Today was always going to be a really difficult game. We're playing one of the best teams in the world with some individual talent that is exceptional. We’ve had a day left to prepare and recover and I think it was just a game too far from us.” “From my point of view our players have given absolutely everything right the way through the final whistle and in the second half we caused them lots of problems, pinned them back.”
Southgate further added, “Well I think we are competitive in every game. We’ve come through and overcome a lot of landmarks that we needed to. To finish in the top four is probably above where we are currently but huge credit to the players because they deserve every bit of praise.” “It’s not club football. We can’t go and buy players so for me the players that have been here have acquitted themselves brilliantly for their country and I couldn’t have asked more of them.”
