Mathieu Warnier, Media365: published on Monday July 1, 2024 at 10:20 p.m.
Belgium’s defeat against Les Bleus this Monday in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 confirms the difficulties of the “Red Devils” when it comes to facing the French team in official competition.
This match will not calm the Belgians’ anger. While their supporters demonstrated all their resentment towards the Blues before kick-off, with a copiously booed “Marseillaise”, Domenico Tedesco’s players remained in the direct line of their predecessors when it came to believing the French team’s path during a major competition. Indeed, at the end of a tight match that was lacking brilliance, the “Red Devils” once again stalled against the Tricolores during the round of 16 of Euro 2024. However, as Kevin De Bruyne stated on the microphone of the RTBFthe Belgian selection “had a plan” that was put in place against Didier Deschamps’ players. All it took was a bad inspiration from Jan Vertonghen to add a layer of “seum” in the minds of the Belgian supporters, who still have the result of the 2018 World Cup semi-final between the two teams stuck in their craw. “We wanted to win, we did everything we could, we were only five minutes away from extra time,” added the Manchester City player. The will was there, like in the last matches.”
Belgians caught in the Blues’ trap
But, in the end, this seventh confrontation between the two teams in a major competition ended like the previous ones. Whether it was at the World Cup in 1938, 1986 or 2018, at Euro 1984 and 2024 or even in the Nations League in 2021, Belgium never found the solution to crack the Blues. “We played well but we know that, against teams like that, you can’t give them anything, otherwise you’ll concede a goal,” confided Jérémy Doku in comments collected by the RTBF. A bit fatalistic, the former Rennes striker admits that his team “could have done much better” but remembers that “people, seeing that we were going to face France, did not expect them to have so much trouble against us”. If the “Red Devils” caused many problems for the Blues who were more efficient than spontaneous, in line with the “winning ugly” (ugly victory) that does not bother Didier Deschamps more than that, they were not necessarily very far from putting an end to this curse that has lasted for 114 years.
