Martinez blasts back as Belgium fall short again
ROBERTO MARTINEZ hit back at criticism of his tactics as Belgium lost to Italy in the match for third place in the Nations League. ‘Systems are not what make a team win,’ snapped Martinez when quizzed about his decision to persist with a three-man defence and wingbacks. ‘It’s the execution of systems and that comes from the quality of the players. ‘You’ve seen a team today playing against the European champions which created more clear-cut chances and have a spirit to keep playing even when 2-0 down. ‘We need to look a little bit further than results and be a bit more mature. ‘We beat Estonia 5-2 and the problem is the two goals. We play against Italy and the problem is that we lost. We need to be more responsible with the way we assess this group and generation.’ Martinez (right), who was without Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard and left Kevin De Bruyne on the bench, also complained about Serbian referee Srdjan Jovanovic as Belgium conceded their second penalty in two games in the Nations League finals. ‘A tournament like this deserves experienced referees and I don’t feel this referee was at the level of either of the teams,’ said the Belgium manager.
‘It was an emotional performance. I feared something would happen and the penalty was a clear example’ Nicolo Barella fired Italy into the lead in Turin with a half-volley early in the second half — the 100th goal for the Azzurri under Roberto Mancini — and Domenico Berardi added a second from the spot after Timothy Castagne had tripped Federico Chiesa. Castagne seemed to get a touch on the ball but VAR did not intervene. Alexis Saelemaekers and Michy Batshuayi struck the bar for Belgium before Yannick Carrasco hit a post at 2-0, while Gianluigi Donnarumma made two strong saves from Toby Alderweireld. Charles de Ketelaere, 20, reduced the deficit with his first goal for Belgium four minutes from time.
‘It was a great performance,’ said Italian goalscorer Berardi, voted man of the match. ‘We wanted to play well after the defeat by Spain. We wanted to send out a positive message.’