Lost bet: French soccer anthem on Brussels metro
Brussels commuters, heading to work the morning after Belgium’s painful World Cup loss to France, had to endure the French soccer anthem piped through the city’s metro on Wednesday. The reason: not only did the national team lose 1-0 in Tuesday’s semi-final but also the Brussels public transport authority lost a bet with its Parisian counterpart. Before the match, the two groups challenged each other on social media. If Belgium won, Paris would change signs at its Saint-Lazare station to “Saint Hazard” in honour of Belgian whirlwind midfielder Eden Hazard. But after the golden generation’s defeat, Brussels instead had to “treat” travellers to the anthem “Tous Ensemble” - All together - by late French rocker Johnny Hallyday at 8 and 10 am. At least Hallyday’s father was Belgian. The country honoured the singer’s heritage when he died last year, playing his greatest hits on trains.
Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’ ‘antifootball’ barb at France after losing their closely-contested semifinal 1-0, at the Krestovsky Stadium here on Tuesday, revealed how frustrating it can be to play Didier Deschamps’ team.
France came into the World Cup with arguably the strongest squad in the tournament. However, Deschamps’ side has looked visibly reserved in Russia. Barring a 4-3 win over Argentina in the Round of 16, their attack has not been the most pleasing.
Instead, France have preferred playing a waiting game like they did against Roberto Martinez’s Belgium.
The Belgians, led by Eden Hazard, started well. France sat back, eager not to cede any opening to opponents who had devoured Brazil in a frenetic first half of the quarter-final.
In the first half-an-hour, the only peep France had at the opposition’s goal was when Paul Pogba danced past a couple of midfielders and set Kylian Mbappe through. Alert to the danger, Courtois promptly dashed forward and collected.
Then as the game progressed, France spotted a few openings. First, Olivier Giroud got to the end of a Benjamin Pavard cross but headed wide. Then, the Chelsea forward failed to finish an Mbappe cross from the right.
To compound matters for Belgium, France had identified their weak link. Mousa Dembele has been an immense figure at Tottenham Hotspur in recent seasons but was a shadow of his usual self in the semi-final.
Griezmann and Pogba, and occasionally Blaise Matuidi, targeted Dembele, drawing fouls from him and disrupting Bel-
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