This evening, Belgium hosts Italy at the King Baudouin Stadium. Rather than rehashing the last matches, Walfoot went back to the last Belgian victory against the Squadra.
There was a time when Belgium was considered the world champion of friendly matches. Before the League of Nations was created to try to give a little stake to these matches, the golden generation also grew thanks to a few prestigious victories in friendly matches. In 2015, the men of Marc Wilmots thus defeated Didier Deschamps’ France and Antonio Conte’s Italy a few months apart.
This 3-1 success against the Italians is the latest victory against our evening opponents. And it is also the last match played between the two teams on Belgian soil. A good omen for this evening? Back to November 13, 2015, nine years ago almost to the day.
Two survivors for today’s match
That evening, the Red Devils had in their core a few players who knew Serie A well, like Radja Nainggolan or Jean-François Gillet. But the biggest surprise remained the tenure of Luis Pedro Cavanda. The one who was going to play one of his only two matches with the Devils had just left Lazio for Trabzonspor.
Only two players called up last Friday by Domenico Tedesco were in the game: Romelu Lukaku was lined up up front, Matz Sels remained on the bench. Alongside him, we found boys like Sven Kums and Laurent Depoître, then at the top of their form with La Gantoise.
The Stade Roi Baudouin quickly became disillusioned: after barely three minutes of play, Antonio Candreva froze the atmosphere by opening the score with a ball pushed back by Simon Mignolet. But very quickly, the Belgians responded: before the quarter of an hour, Jan Vertonghen put the Devils back on level terms with a wonderful diving header from a corner from Kevin De Bruyne.
1-1 at rest, against an Italy that was nevertheless quite dangerous: the Belgian defense can thank a very inspired Simon Mignolet and the crossbar, which repelled the 1-2. Ultimately, it was Michy Batshuayi’s rise to the game at the hour mark which changed the course of the match in the second act.
For his second appearance in the diabolical jacket, the then striker of Olympique de Marseille forced Gianluigi Buffon into a parade as the last quarter of an hour approached, which benefited Kevin De Bruyneauthor of the 2-1 by lobbing Buffon on the rebound.
Batshuayi then once again ignited the singing voice of Rodrigo Beenkens by scoring the goal of the break, with a splendid work of Yannick Carrasco. An encouraging victory a few months before the Euro, against an Italy which fielded its best.
But we know the rest: the Squadra will be our first opponent in the Euro and will insinuate the first doubts in the Belgian team, with a 2-0 victory without the slightest dispute. The Italians will again dominate us at Euro 2020 and during the match for third place in the 2021 Nations League. After stopping the bleeding last October, will the Devils find their way to victory against our transalpine friends? ?
