Martinez hails Belgian stars
Roberto Martinez believes his Belgium lineup deserves high praise for its third-place finish at the World Cup.
Belgium beat England 2-0 in the third-place playoff yesterday at St Petersburg, surpassing the country’s previous best fourthplace finish in 1986.
Along the way, Belgium had to rally from 2-0 down for a 3-2 win in the round-of-16 game against Japan, had to beat five-time champion Brazil in the quarterfinals and beat England twice.
Belgium’s only loss in the tournament was in the 1-0 semifinal defeat to France.
Martinez says ‘‘We faced eyeto-eye to Brazil. We overcame a 2-0 deficit against Japan — that is the first time it happened since 1966. We scored the biggest amount of goals in a Belgian team in World Cup history.
‘‘We got 10 different goal scorers — which is a record also with France (1982) and Italy (2006).’’ The Belgium coach says the records ‘‘showed the strength of this side’’.
The man who restored England’s mojo at the World Cup, and brought the waist coast (or vest) back into fashion, has signed off after a fourth-place finish with some love for Russia.
England coach Gareth Southgate wrapped up his news conference after his team’s loss by thanking the people of Russia for their welcome during the tournament.
The British government has led efforts to sanction Russia since a nerve-agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in March. A second and possibly linked poisoning last month killed a woman and left a man in the hospital.
The British government did not send an official delegation for the World Cup, and members of the royal family decided not to attend. Southgate took it upon himself to play an ambassadorial role.
‘‘The way we’ve been received in Russia has been fantastic. The organisation of the tournament has been brilliant. Our welcome in Russia in every city has been outstanding,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘There’s a lot talked about relationships between our two countries — but on a personal level and mixing with the people of Russia, we couldn’t have been more welcome.’’
Both Belgium and England were playing for the seventh time in 26 days, but the Belgians entered the match with an extra day of rest.
Thomas Meunier scored in the fourth minute, knocking a cross from Nacer Chadli past England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Captain Eden Hazard added the other off a pass from Kevin De Bruyne in the 82nd.
Toby Alderweireld denied England’s best chance of the game, sliding on the goal line to clear a shot from Eric Dier.
England matched its best World Cup result – fourth in 1990 – since winning the tournament for the only time in 1966.
‘‘Today shows there’s room for improvement. We’re not the finished article. We’re still learning. We’re still getting better,’’ England captain Harry Kane said.
‘‘We don’t want to wait another 20-odd years to get into another major semifinal.’’
Belgium’s previous best finish at the World Cup was fourth, but the team outplayed England in the midfield to go one better this time. The Belgians could easily have scored more, with Pickford making a good save to stop a shot from De Bruyne in the 11th and Alderweireld volleying narrowly over the bar in the 35th.
England made set pieces the cornerstone of its run to the World Cup semifinals and created chances for Harry Maguire and Dier in the second half. Neither hit the target with their headers.
It was the second time England and Belgium met in this year’s tournament.
In the group stage, both teams had already qualified before Belgium’s 1-0 win in Kaliningrad.
Southgate made five changes, but Danny Rose and Fabian Delph made little impact while Dier started slowly but threatened in the second half.
Phil Jones failed to intercept the pass which led to Hazard’s goal. The two replacements in Belgium’s lineup were more effective. Meunier scored and Youri Tielemans dominated the midfield. Kane is still well placed to win the Golden Boot with a tournament-leading six goals ahead of this morning’s final.
Kane last scored in England’s win over Colombia in the round of 16. Yesterday, he slipped as he shot wide in the first half, then failed to make contact with Jesse Lingard’s cross early in the second. Romelu Lukaku couldn’t add to his four goals for Belgium and was substituted shortly after misjudging a through ball by De Bruyne.