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Belgium blanks England 2-0 for third place,
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — Belgium and England both leave the World Cup happy to have reached the semifinals. Belgium may be a little happier, though.
The Belgians earned their highest World Cup finish by beating England 2-0 in the third-place match on Saturday. Thomas Meunier and Eden Hazard scored a goal each.
“These players didn’t want to rely on talent anymore, wanted to work as a team,” Belgium coach Roberto Martinez said. “Their standards have been magnificent. They wanted to make the country proud, every single Red Devils fan proud.”
France and Croatia will play in the final today at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. The French beat Belgium on Tuesday in the semifinals, while the Croats defeated England on Wednesday.
Meunier’s early goal matched a World Cup record for Belgium by having 10 different players score in a tournament, something only done before by France in 1982 and Italy in 2006.
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.
Meunier scored in the fourth minute, knocking a cross from Nacer Chadli past England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. 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 striker Harry Kane said. “We don’t want to wait another 20-odd years to get into another major semifinal.”
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.
England coach Gareth Southgate made five changes to face Belgium, but Danny Rose and Fabian Delph made little impact while Dier started slowly but threatened in the second half. The two replacements in Belgium’s lineup were more effective. Meunier scored and Youri Tielemans dominated the midfield.
Kane is still placed to win the Golden Ball with a tournament-leading six goals ahead of today’s final.