FRANCE, BELGIUM MOVE ON IN WORLD CUP
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia — Antoine Griezmann learned how to play soccer in France. But it was a Uruguayan who taught him how to be a professional.
So when the French striker scored the biggest goal of his international career Friday, the one that ended Uruguay’s World Cup, he betrayed no emotion. Instead he simply dropped his head, turned around and went back to work.
“I didn’t celebrate that goal because when I started as a professional player, I was supported by a Uruguayan who taught me the good and the bad in football,” Griezmann said through a translator. “So out of respect, it was normal not to celebrate my goal.”
Yet about an hour later, many on the Uruguayan side were celebrating France and Griezmann, who set up the first goal and scored the second in a 20 victory that sends the French on to a World Cup semifinal against Belgium, who beat Brazil, 2-1, while sending Uruguay home.
“We weren’t as good as France. That’s the way we see it,” said Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez after his team’s only loss of the World Cup. “We played against an opponent stronger than us. We have to admit it.”
Griezmann admitted to mixed emotions heading into the game. Two of his club teammates at Spain’s Atletico Madrid play for Uruguay and one of them, captain Diego Godin, is the godfather of Griezmann’s daughter.
And when Griezmann made his
first-division debut in 2009 for Spain’s Real Sociedad, it was under Uruguayan coach Martin Lasarte.
“I have a lot of respect for Uruguay as a country and the Uruguayan culture,” said Griezmann, who exchanged a pair of hugs with Godin before the game and brief embraces with Godin and club teammate Jose Gimenez afterward. “I was also playing against friends.”
But he was playing for his country, one he has helped take a big step toward its first World Cup final since 2006. He helped open the scoring in the 40th minute when he bent a left-footed free kick into the box for Raphael Varane, whose glancing header was just the second goal Uruguay had allowed in the tournament.
That goal also marked the first time Uruguay had trailed in the World Cup.
The South Americans, who entered the day with more setpiece goals than any other team in the tournament, nearly tied the score minutes later when a long free kick from Lucas Torreira was headed on target by Martin Caceres. But French keeper Hugo Lloris, who had an outstanding game, made a diving onehanded stop at the left post and Godin, charging after the rebound, could not put it on target from a tough angle.
That proved costly when Griezmann doubled the lead 16 minutes into the second half on a shot from outside the penalty area that was misplayed by Uruguayan keeper Fernando Muslera, who got both hands on the ball but couldn’t handle it cleanly, deflecting
it behind him and just across the goal line.
“It always hurts,” said Godin, who played on the Uruguayan team that reached the World Cup semifinals eight years ago. “It was really difficult once we went down a goal against a team that was organized, solid, that ran all over the field (and) that was good in the midfield.”
Belgium savors 2-1 victory over Brazil
Since taking over as coach of the Belgian national team two years ago, Roberto Martinez has kept the focus on preparing for the next win rather than celebrating the previous one.
He briefly broke from that approach Friday after beating Brazil, 2-1, in a World Cup quarterfinal in Kazan, Russia, a win that lifted Belgium into the tournament’s final four for the first time in 32 years.
It was a victory, Martinez admitted, that deserved to be savored.
“This is beating Brazil in the World Cup, in the knockout (stage),” he said. “Just treasure it and pass it down in the generations.”
There was more to it than that.
It was a win over a Brazil team that had posted eight shutouts in its last nine games, including three in the four games in Russia. And one that hadn’t trailed in a match since March 2017.
Yet Belgium needed only 13 minutes to end both those streaks, taking the lead on an own goal from Fernandinho.
It was a win over a Brazil team that had given up only four shots on goal in the tournament. But by the time Belgium got its first Friday it led 2-0, scoring on Kevin De Bruyne’s right-footed laser from outside the box.
“They were incredible; incredible heart out there,” Martinez said of this team. “Sometimes you have to accept that Brazil has got this finesse, that quality that they’re going to break you down. They didn’t accept it.”