STUTTGART-. Dressed like Tintin but without venturing too far, Belgium secured their place in the round of 16 as second in the evenly matched Group E on Wednesday in Stuttgart, after a 0-0 draw against Ukrainewhich is eliminated from the Euro 2024.
The ‘Red Devils’ will face France in the round of 16 next Monday, July 1 in Düsseldorf.
“We won’t be favorites against France, but we know that during a tournament you have to play at your best level,” said UEFA Man of the Match Kevin de Bruyne.
After the third and final matchday, the four teams in the group finished tied on four points, but the higher number of goals scored left Romania in the lead and Belgium in second.
Slovakia, with a worse goal difference than the Belgians, secured passage from third position and Ukraine, despite having 4 points, is eliminated as fourth place.
The goal difference that they had carried since the 3-0 defeat against Romania on the first day ended up being lethal for the Ukrainians’ chances.
Opposite the match, far from celebrating the result, the Belgian fans booed their players loudly after the final whistle, unhappy with the play of Domenico Tedesco’s men.
“I’m surprised, because it was really important for us to qualify,” the coach assessed the fans’ reaction, stating that he had “tried everything to win.”
“Peace has a price”
Without Mykhaylo Mudryk, Andriy Lunin and Oleksandr Zinchenko in the starting eleven, the Ukrainian starting eleven took to the pitch with a flag of their country on their shoulders, which they held during the anthems. A gesture in memory of the invasion of Russia that they have also carried out in their last two games.
In the 6th minute of the match, the Ukrainian fans’ fund displayed a canvas with the face of a Ukrainian soldier, composed with the portrait of 182 other fans of Ukrainian clubs who died during the war.
“Peace has a price. Since February 2022, thousands of football fans have died during the war,” read a banner accompanying the portrait of Nazariy Hryntsevich, who died at the front last May at the age of 21. .
The same back of the stadium took center stage again minutes later but for a different reason, when De Bruyne (33) complained to the referee about a laser pointer pointing at his face, in a direct free kick with which he sought to surprise.
The situation was repeated (41) and the organization had to remind over the public address system the prohibition of using this type of object.
Conformity and little aggressiveness
With a second kit with colors and aesthetics in homage to Tintin, the Belgians did not demonstrate the sense of adventure of Hergé’s emblematic comic character. They fell into conformism, showing little aggressiveness and no effectiveness.
Beyond the Belgian captain’s attempt, the first half saw both teams reaching the area but without these ending in shots on goal.
Yes, Romelu Lukaku did, criticized for his lack of precision throughout the tournament, and who could not resolve a face-to-face save by Anatoliy Trubin (7).
He tried again in the second half, although again the Ukrainian goalkeeper won the duel (65). Trubin, wearing the Ukraine gloves since Lunin was singled out for the win against Romania, also saved a goal from Yannick Carrasco (73).
More timidly, after having been focused on an ultra-defensive plan, Ukraine sought the goal in the final minutes, with a shot into the side netting by Artem Dovbyk (75) and with a direct attempt from the corner kick by Ruslan Malinovskyi, cleared by Koen Casteels (83).
“I think everyone saw that we were trying to win the game. We were playing against one of the best teams, so it was very difficult,” said coach Serhiy Rebrov.
The draw left the Ukrainians devastated, but on the Belgian side the faces were also long due to the flat game before a first life or death challenge against the fearsome France.
Source: AFP
