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