BRAZIL OUT!
Kane England join Belgium in semis?
BRAZIL were sent packing from the World Cup as Belgium’s Manchester connection swept them into the semi-finals with an historic win.
Five-time winners Brazil were left stunned, as Belgium’s
famed ‘Golden Generation’ finally lived up to their potential– and they can go all the way in Russia.
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and United’s Romelu Lukaku were Belgium’s standout performers, combining for a quite stunning second goal, as Roberto Martinez’s side turned on the style in Kazan.
And the Manchester influence, which ran throughout this enthralling clash, saw City skipper Vincent Kompany engineer the opener.
While Belgium now face France on Tuesday in St Petersburg, for Brazil it was another World Cup that ended with regret and selfrecrimination. After their humiliating 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany on home soil four years ago, only winning a sixth World Cup would heal that wound.
But the likes of Neymar, Philippe Coutinho and Gabriel Jesus failed to deliver when their country needed them to deliver on the biggest stage.
Brazil had the first sight of goal. Miranda flicked on a corner to Thiago Silva, but the ball bounced off him on to the near post, and ended up in the grateful arms of Thibaut Courtois. And it was Belgium who made the breakthrough after 13 minutes, Kompany flicking on a corner from Nacer Chadli, which came off his City colleague Fernandinho and into the net, beyond the despairing reach of Allison.
Brazil’s desire to get back on level terms swiftly left them vulnerable at the back.
And Belgium doubled their lead in the 31st minute with a breakaway goal – that took 17 seconds from start to finish – in keeping with the breathless nature of the first-half. Lukaku was the architect, bulldozing his way past opponents with belligerence and power. He then funnelled the ball into the path of De Bruyne, who took one look up before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the far corner of the net.
Brazil had to do something at the break, and they brought on Douglas Costa for the ineffective Jesus. Costa forced a fine save from Courtois just after the hour, but Belgium could have killed off the game with another counter-attack at breakneck speed. De Bruyne sprayed the ball out wide to Hazard on the left, but the Chelsea forward went for goal himself, instead of squaring to Lukaku, who was waiting to apply the finishing touch.
Brazil were given hope of a comeback when Coutinho finally exerted some influence.
He found Augusto with a sublime chip, and the sub sent a glancing header beyond Courtois, to set up a frantic finale.
But when the Belgium keeper tipped over Neymar’s last-minute curler the game was up for Brazil.
POSSESSION SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET CORNERS OFFSIDE FOULS CARDS