Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne (7) celebrates after the final whistle as Belgium defeat Brazil in their quarterfinal match between Brazil and Belgium at the 2018 soccer World Cup. Photo / AP
Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne (7) celebrates after the final whistle as Belgium defeat Brazil in their quarterfinal match between Brazil and Belgium at the 2018 soccer World Cup. Photo / AP
Great World Cup games can be the epic comeback tale and others, like this one, are about how one team stands firm in the gale of a relentless attacking force, although quite how Belgium hung on to reach the semi-finals and send Brazil home they might never know.
A classic for Russia 2018, featuring a Belgium side who plundered their famous opposition twice in the first 32 minutes for goals that the men in the yellow shirts would spend the next hour chasing and chasing. The five-time champions of the world tried everything, led by their little general Philippe Coutinho and urged ever onwards, but having encountered Belgium's silky counter-attack they then ran into the steel of its back door.
For every Kevin De Bruyne counter-attack and Eden Hazard scamper forward there were half a dozen blocks from Marouane Fellaini and his fellow midfield sentry Axel Witsel the two unmistakeable guardogs of this Belgium team. They hung on somehow with a save from Thibaut Courtois in time added on at the end, thrusting a glove upwards to push over a shot from Neymar who had not done enough, and knew that only too well.
It will be Belgium against France in the semi-final in St Petersburg on Tuesday, the last two South American sides Brazil and Uruguay sent home from the competition on the same day and, as with the last three World Cups, 2018 will have a European champion. The great Belgium golden generation have made good on their talent at last, and while this was a sparkling first half, including a De Bruyne classic counter-attack, it was also a lot about their qualities of cohesion.
Brazil's Neymar takes a fall while battling Belgium's Axel Witsel, center, and Thomas Meunier, right, during the quarterfinal match between Brazil and Belgium. Photo / AP
Brazil were marvellous in the second half but they had left themselves too much to do in the end, and this was a triumph for Roberto Martinez and Thierry Henry who organised a shrewd counter-attacking formation that struck at Brazil's vulnerable midfield. For Manchester City's Fernandinho, scorer of an own goal, it was a bad night but in the end this was a Brazil team that just did not look like it could play enough different notes to break down a side as good as Belgium.
The 2018 World Cup went up a gear in Kazan, and for every moment that slipped by it felt that Brazil were falling into a trap set for them by a Belgium team who knew just where their opponents' weaknesses were.
They were fortunate with the first goal, the worst part of a nightmare start for the Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho, in for the suspended Casemiro and knocked off the ball early on by his club-mate De Bruyne. Fernandinho glanced in a silly near post own goal under no pressure other than the jump by another City man, his Brazil team-mate Gabriel Jesus on 14 minutes which gave the Roma goalkeeper Alisson no hope of saving.
Belgium players celebrate after they defeated Brazil in the quarterfinal match between Brazil and Belgium at the 2018 soccer World Cup in the Kazan Arena. Photo / AP
Perhaps it would have been different if some of Belgium's ropey marking from set-pieces early on had been exploited by Brazil. They hit the post when Neymar's eighth minute corner cannoned off the the thigh of Thiago Silva; Paulinho mis-kicked another and after that the Belgians got their act together.
At some point in the first half they switched from a back three to a back four and looked very hard to break down, inviting Brazil to go down the flanks where the ball crossed back in caused very few problems. In front of the back four, Fellaini was rising to the challenge magnificently and when he did not get a foot in it was often Axel Witsel who did.
A goal to the good, Belgium had their famous opponents just where they wanted them - that being committed to the attack and vulnerable on the counter. Martinez and his assistant had their two attackers split with Eden Hazard occupying Brazil's left-back Fagner and Romelu Lukaku far out on the right. It was De Bruyne's job to carry possession out to them and when finally they got the sequence right the results were breathtaking.
It took a few attempts for Lukaku to hit his stride and sort his feet out. He attempted a couple of crossfield balls from his right wing position which were nothing like as deceptive as those De Bruyne can hit. Finally on 32 minutes he had the ball where he wanted it, in his own half and facing goal he drove onwards with it bouncing around at his feet and Brazil's midfield scrambling to recover the situation.
He went past Fernandinho and Paulinho was too late to stop Lukaku's release, right on the money and straight to the sweetest right foot in the Belgium team. De Bruyne was allowed to advance by Marcelo to the edge of the penalty area where the Manchester City man cracked a shot that was perfectly straight and direct into Alisson's right hand corner. Brazil were two down in a tournament in which they had only ever previously conceded one goal in four matches.
The Brazil manager Tite gave Jesus another 13 minutes of the second half but had already seen enough of Willian at half-time and brought on Roberto Firmino in a central position. Brazil stepped up again, the territory all theirs but a mass of Belgium shirts blocking the route through the middle and forcing them down the sides again.
These are the moments that Neymar is supposed to unlock and by now he was tucked in, more central than his usual wide left, chalk-on-his-boots position, which Marcelo occupied. He was trying to get into the area to see whether he could winkle out a Belgian mistake and seven minutes into the first half he surged past Fellaini, launched himself two footed onto the deck and should have been booked.
It was a closer call four minutes later when Jesus slipped the ball through the legs of Vertonghen and beat Vincent Kompany to the ball on the other side. There was no question that in the area by the byline the Belgium captain caught his Manchester City club-mate but when the moment went to review VAR had decided the ball had first gone into touch and the game was dead.
Tite made his changes quickly - Douglas Costa for Jesus and then Renato Augusto for Paulinho. The goal came within four minutes of Augusto's arrival, yet another ball channeled through the middle to Philippe Coutinho, a glance up and then a cross swept onto the head of the substitute and glanced neatly into the corner of Courtois' goal.
Finally, with 14 minutes left, the Belgians no longer looked as impregnable as they had for so much of the match and Coutinho was running things. He picked out Augusto again through the centre and with a clear sight of goal he could not keep his shot on target. Courtois' save from Neymar was the last chance and Belgium had hung on.
