Belgium rues what might have been
Belgians tasted bitterness in their beer on Tuesday after their dreams of a first World Cup final were ended by the narrowest of margins by their bigger French neighbours.
“I feel ill,” said Denis Backaert, 34, after watching France prevail 1-0 in the tightest of semi-final encounters between two sharp sides in St Petersburg.
“I’ve been dreaming for about a month,” Backaert, who works in logistics, said at an outdoor screening in Brussels. “And against France, too, that’s so frustrating ... I can’t bear it.”
“It was close. Both sides played very well,” said economics student Alpha Omba. “It’s just a shame. There was nothing in it.”
Like most of the country of 11 million, he was still proud of the team’s performance at the World Cup, stunning Brazil in the quarter-final and putting recent disappointments behind it as Spanish coach Roberto Martinez galvanised a diverse group of millionaire club stars into a highly motivated unit.
Prime Minister Charles Michel tweeted: “Bravo, Red Devils, for your performances and for having thrilled us all the way to
BRUSSELS:
the semi-finals.”
“We’d like to have got to the final,” said Omba, 18. “But we’ve done very well.”
Like Martinez himself, he now wants the team to try and win Saturday’s battle for third place against either England or Croatia. Sophie Franssen, a 31-yearold banking assistant, confessed she was not a big soccer fan but felt the tournament had lifted the mood of the country and brought its often fractious French- and Dutch-speakers, as well as immigrant communities, together.
“It’s very good for Belgium,” she said. “We’re all behind one flag, we’re all behind one team. “It’s a pity. Next time maybe.” Sports science student Laura De Lange, 20, said: “We really believed, after Brazil we thought we’d beat the French and get to the final and we’re really disappointed,” she said.