It will therefore be… France-Belgium. The poster for the round of 16 that the Blues will play on Monday 1is July at 6 p.m. in Düsseldorf (Germany) was revealed, Wednesday June 26, at the final whistle of the last two meetings of the undecided group E: Belgium – Ukraine (0-0) and Romania – Slovakia (1-1 ).
Romania finished in first place, ahead of Belgium and Slovakia, qualified for the rest of this Euro 2024, while Ukraine was eliminated, despite a strong performance.
Belgians and French will therefore meet for a remake of the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup, won (1-0) by the Blues, source of the famous Belgian “seum”. The goalkeeper at the time, Thibault Courtois, declared, disappointed and bitter: “We lose against a team which is not better than us, and which does not play”while striker Eden Hazard said: “I would rather lose with Belgium than win with France. » Both have ended their international careers, but five members of the current Belgian squad took part in this match, and as many on the French side (Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, N’Golo Kanté, Kylian Mbappé, Benjamin Pavard).
Two twin teams in their offensive sterility
But, given their performance on Wednesday, Belgium in 2024 can hardly claim to have played a successful game. A surprising scene at the end of the match: the disappointed Belgian supporters started an uproar despite qualifying, and the captain, Kevin De Bruyne, signalled to his men not to go and greet the crowd.
In reality, this new France-Belgium will pit two twin teams against each other in their offensive sterility: both scored only two goals during this first round and, despite the big names lined up on either side, their game is laborious, hesitant, marked by numerous failures in the last meters, which annihilate dangerous situations one after the other.
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Against Ukraine, despite its outfit inspired by that of Tintin – sky blue jersey and brown shorts – Belgium hardly took part in the adventure. A draw qualifying them in all scenarios, De Bruyne’s teammates first focused on not losing.
Conversely, of the four teams in the group who entered this third day in a tied position with 3 points, Ukraine was the worst placed at kick-off – due to a worse goal difference – and most encouraged to take risks. The men in yellow enter the game with determination, after their anthem resonates in the MHP Arena, to the continuous applause of the Belgian supporters, and before the deployment of a banner paying tribute to the Ukrainian footballers killed since the outbreak of the Russian offensive, in February 2022.
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