RED DEVILS STAND TALL AGAINST SELECAO

Tournament favourites Brazil were knocked out by an inspired and tactically superior Belgium. HT looks at how the European outfit turned it around against the five-time champions:

STELLAR COURTOIS

Thibaut Courtois (in pic) made some outstanding saves to deny Brazil at several key moments. First, he thwarted Coutinho in the 37th minute after the Brazilian had cut inside from the corner to unleash a powerful curling effort towards the bottom right but Courtois did well to tip it round the post. In the 63rd minute, Douglas Costa dribbled into the Belgian area from the right. His shot was low and hard but was parried away by Courtois. The most crucial save of the night came four minutes into second half injury-time. Costa came in from the right to slip the ball across the face of the box for Neymar, who opened up his body and attempted to curl the ball into the top right. But Courtois, at full stretch, got his fingertips to it to tip over the bar.

RESOLUTE DEFENCE

After Belgium had taken a two-goal lead into the break, it was inevitable that Brazil would attack with all their might. But the Red Devils’ backline, well marshalled by Vincent Kompany, stood firm, making numerous key tackles and interceptions to deny the Brazilians. With Brazil piling on pressure in the second half, even Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku fell back to help out.

HAZARD, DE BRUYNE FREED

Belgium’s creative maestros, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard, delivered their best performance of the tournament. Marouane Fellaini’s presence allowed De Bruyne to play his natural and more attacking game, rather than in the deep-lying playmaker role he has been operating in so far. The duo combined well,

outclassing Brazil with their clever and quick passing.

Hazard’s approach in the last 15 minutes of the game must be commended. He made space and dragged the ball into wide positions in the opponent’s half on his own, winning fouls and running down the clock fairly.

BRAZIL PAY THE PRICE

Brazil had an astounding 26 attempts on the Belgian goal with nine of those on target and 10 of them blocked. Two of their best chances were wasted by Renato Augusto and Philippe Coutinho. Substitute Augusto ran through the centre of the Belgium defence just five minutes after scoring from a header, to set himself through on goal but only

managed to shoot wide from the edge of the box.

Coutinho’s delightful dinked pass to Augusto had got Brazil back into the game. But in 84th minute, the Barcelona winger passed up a golden opportunity to draw level. A cut-back by Neymar found an in-rushing Coutinho, who failed to open up his body and shot miles wide of the far post.

›

■

Everyone thinks Lukaku is just goals but I want to be seen as an allrounder. Providing assists is also important and this year I have provided more. ROMELU LUKAKU, Belgium forward