2018 FIFA World Cup: Belgium Dumps Brazil Out Of Competition To Advance To Semifinals
Jul 7, 2018 at 10:13 AM
Kevin De Bruyne scored a stunner as Belgium stunned Brazil to book a place in the World Cup semi-finals. The European outfit beat the five-time world champions 2-1 to dump them out of the competition.
An own-goal from Fernandinho (13) and a rasping De Bruyne (31) finish, gave Belgium a 2-0 lead at the break. Brazil came out all guns blazing after the break but Belgium held on to register a memorable win.
The game had a lively start as Thiago Silva bundled an effort against the post on nine minutes and Paulinho fired wide from Willian’s corner two minutes later. And the South Americans soon paid the price for squandering the early chances. In the 13th minute, Belgium took the lead although with a slice of luck when Nacer Chadli’s corner from the left was clumsily flicked into his own net by Fernandinho.
But while the opening goal was lucky, the second was an absolute class. Romelu Lukaku picked the ball up ten yards outside his own box, burst past two Brazilians through the middle of the field. The forward then offloaded the ball to De Bruyne, who fired off a stunning strike from the edge of the box which whistled in to the left corner.
With the game slipping away, the Selecaos started on a positive note after the break, attacking the Belgians with every passing second. Substitute Roberto Firmino almost flicked home a Marcelo cross while Gabriel Jesus had a penalty claim turned down by VAR after Kompany went to ground inside the area.
The goal eventually came for them in the 76th minute when Renato Augusto brilliantly headed home from a perfect pass from Philippe Coutinho.