Beaten by Italy in the small final of the League of Nations, the Red Devils left fanny of the League of Nations. Painful for the world numbers 1.
«The Final Four was spoiled by these failed second half starts. The consequence hurts despite the relative interest of this mini-competition: we leave with the medal in cioccolato when there was better to do. Maybe even better. Frustrating», Summarizes Christophe Franken in The last hour. Belgium arrived in Italy with the status of world number 1, leaves the Final Four of the League of Nations disappointed. After the 2018 World Cup (eliminated in the semi-finals by France) and Euro 2020 (exit in the quarter-finals by Italy) the Belgians have, again, recorded a disillusion by losing against their two executioners . France (3-2), then Italy (2-1) once again closed the door to the Red Devils. Opta recalling that the Belgians had not conceded two consecutive defeats since 2010 (Roberto Martinez was not yet in place).
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Little consolation, this Monday, Belgium retains its place of world No. 1 (since September 20, 2018). Just ahead of Brazil. But drags his pain and his frustration linked to the arbitration (against France) and the lack of success (2 strikes on the crossbar and 1 on a post against Italy).
Kevin De Bruyne, the Manchester City strategist, affected by the ricochets that bind Belgium at the foot of the podium has, in The last hour, summarized after the defeat at the “little final“:” We must not forget that we are just Belgium. We missed a lot of players today (Sunday) and we know that we are not 22 ”tops“Players, while this is the case for nations like France and Italy.”
Belgium is not about to see such a concentration of potential again.
Philippe albert
Timothy Castagne adding in the DH to illustrate the distance still to be covered: “It’s good to have the mentality but now we have to start to achieve results against these teams. We are still missing a little something and we will have to work to prevent it from happening again. The positive point is that today (Sunday) we did not stop playing like last Thursday (against France). It’s up to us to give our all to be better in thirteen months at the World Cup.»
Philippe Albert, the former international, stamps and retains on the Sudinfo.be site: “It remains a huge wasted opportunity, once again, because the formula of the competition opened the door wide to a first success for the golden generation. A bit like on the principle of the National Cups which constitute the shortest way to Europe, there were only two matches between the Devils and a trophy. This consecration will be delayed for life, I am afraid. Whose fault is it ? To the lack of leadership that we find both in Martinez but also the players themselves. The coach and his team had everything in hand to mark the history of Belgian football. At this level, when you have neither the coach nor the players to make the difference in terms of personality… World-class talent was gathered in this generation and I think that Belgium is not about to see such a concentration again. of potential to win a Euro or a World Cup. Finally, I tell myself that people will only remember what the Devils missed, not what they achieved with their 3rd place in Russia.»
After the epilogue against Italy, Roberto Martinez wanted to try to extract some reasons for satisfaction: “Even if it’s a defeat, on both sides of the field, we managed to be effective. We gave an overall positive performance (…) And with all due respect, I don’t think the penalty was a deserved decision… He was an experienced referee but I don’t think he estimated the weight. of its decisions. This penalty, it is not deserved, it is a frustration on the way it arrived. VAR should help referees a lot more. From a mental point of view, we controlled the match better in the second half than against France (2-3 in the semi-final), it’s a satisfaction. Alexis Saelemaekers (AC Milan) has improved a lot over the past six months, he’s really a very different player than at Anderlecht, he plays very well in space. He really has quality and he is very clever without the ball …»
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