The team led by Domenico Tedesco will meet France in the next phase and will play the match on July 1 in Düsseldorf.
Belgium qualified for the round of 16 of the Euro Cup as second in Group E after draw 0-0 against Ukraineeliminated from the tournament after adding three points with which it finished in the last place behind its rival this Wednesday and Romania and Slovakia.
The team led by Domenico Tedesco will come across France in the next phase and will play the match on July 1 in Düsseldorf.
Belgium, eternally doubtful, navigating between lights and shadows since she was proclaimed a candidate to win something, faced the last day of the group stage with the drive of her victory against Romania (2-0) but with the memory of her defeat in an erratic debut against Slovakia in which they lost 0-1. A draw could be enough for the team led by Domenico Tedesco, better placed than Ukraine despite adding the same points, three, the same as its other two rivals.
The Italian coach did not change anything compared to his previous clash. He only forced to remove Lukébakio, suspended, and gave an opportunity to Trossard, player ‘number 12’ in Arsenal and also in Belgium unfortunately for his interests. At least, in a decisive match, he had a new opportunity that he wasted in Belgium’s staging in the Euro Cup.
Ukraine was forced to win. The tie was probably not going to be of any use to him. And even more so when in the other match the tables classified both Romania and Slovakia and a possible ‘biscotto’ was sensed. Therefore, Serhiy Rebrov’s selection could not speculate on anything, although he surprised with his lineup in which a couple of his figures were missing, such as Zinchenko and Mudryk. He also benched the veteran Yarmolenko, but that was more expected. In their place, Yaremchuk, Svatok and Mykolenko appeared.
Belgium, in the first half, if not for De Bruyne, would have been nothing. The genius of Manchester City He was the only one who raised the flag of good sense and good play. The rest of his important teammates, necessary to break matches, were missing. Doku, Lukaku and Trossard They disguised their shortcomings with the sporadic appearances of their best player, who almost as soon as he left the locker room caused the clearest opportunity for the ‘Red Devils’.
With a huge change of pace, he accelerated to almost the crescent of the area and filtered a sensational pass to Lukaku, who, in his line of major tournaments, failed a heads-up against Trubin. What’s more, he almost didn’t even finish, he made a strange gesture and his boot mishandled the ball that the Ukrainian goalkeeper took. Lukaku’s jinx was beginning to become legendary. To his mistakes in the last match of the Qatar World Cup 2022 that condemned Belgium against Croatia, we had to add three tremendous failures against Slovakia in this Euro Cup and several missed opportunities against Romania.
And, on top of that, every time he scores, up to three times, technology appeared to annul his goals. On the bench, Tedescoincredulous, could not believe so much bad luck and his players, except for another appearance of Kevin De Bruynewho threatened Trunin with a foul that crashed into the side of the net, disappeared in combat.
Ukraine, meanwhile, was doing its thing, well locked in behind and with very fast starts that were on the verge of surprising Belgium. Although control was not his thing, his few approaches generated much more danger than those of his rival. However, between Yaremchuk and Dovbykmistakes in extremely dangerous final passes, prevented their teammates from going to the locker room ahead on the scoreboard.
Rebrov’s team did not improve after the break. He even leaned back further, as if he didn’t need a victory to stay in the race. Eurocup. A strange attitude for a team that clearly has wasted all the quality names it has in its squad. And his alarming lack of ambition continued until the last twenty minutes, in which, at least, he had an attack of dignity and tried to appear in the penalty area. Casteels.
Belgium, meanwhile, completely dominated the situation, but continued to waste chances. Doku He finally started and made an appearance and was the clearest chance to end the match. However, Lukaku did not appear where he needed to be when his teammate overflowed down the left wing and put in a poisoned cross to which his teammate arrived a second late.
At least, in the anchor role, Lukaku does work and Carrasco He was about to score after a combination with the burly Inter attacker. Trubin reacted to the former Atlético de Madrid player’s shot with a good intervention with which he maintained uncertainty for the last quarter of an hour, in which Ukraine pressed until they were close to the goal with an Olympic corner from Malinovsky and with the umpteenth attempt to Dovbyk, that he did not finish his appearances well.
In the end, there was no bloodshed for Belgium, who will continue in the competition to face in the round of 16 France, another selection that offers doubts. In Düsseldorf, on July 1, two teams that have disappointed in the group stage will meet. In the case of Tedesco’s team, only De Bruyne saved his honor. He is the only one capable of generating some illusion. The rest are just hopefuls with the light turned off, like the Ukrainians, who arrived at the Euro Cup with the label of a possible revelation team and left the tournament through the back door.
