The 17:00 kick-off in today’s fixtures featured a Belgium team – including the likes of Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku – versus a Russian side with only one West London link in the form of Yuri Zhirkov, who watched on from the sidelines.
After a very, very, weary game, Belgium – with the help of Eden Hazard – came out on top in the final minutes to put themselves on six points in the group, as well as earning qualification to the next round of the tournament. The result leaves Russia on 1 point after 2 games, level with South Korea who play their game in hand against Algeria next
Both teams began fairly brightly, with Russia looking to counter attack in numbers; Vincent Kompany did well to squander a 4 v 2 situation in favour of the Russians very early on. Belgium were quick to fight back, with Mertens looking the brightest player on the pitch by far. The winger merited his place in the team after coming on to score the winner in the second half against Algeria in Belgium’s opening game.
Former Chelsea winger Kevin De Bruyne was also a lively starter, assisting Mertens in many of the early opportunities. Eden Hazard had a quiet first half, perhaps slightly feeling the bruised toe that made him a doubt to start.
The first chance of the game came in the 11th minute, Fayzulin’s low strike needing a good Courtois save to prevent the opening goal. Into the 20th minute and Mertens was lively again – a low drive across the box needing a Akinfeev save.
Early into the half and Thomas Vermaelen was subbed off after the converted-left-back had failed to recover from an injury suffered in the warm-up.
The half died down after the 30 minute mark, with both teams looking lethargic; however the most clear cut chance of the half fell to Glushakov in the 42nd minute, getting in between Kompany and Van Buyten but glancing a header wide. It should really have been 1-0 to the Russians.
Lukaku received lots of criticism at half time, after failing to make any sort of impact in the game; this coming after gaining 0 touches in the opposition box against Algeria. The big forward looked much tamer than Chelsea fans would be used to seeing on their televisions over the past couple of seasons, and he was pulled off in the 57th minute – Origi his replacement.
The second half began no brighter than the first ended, and in truth, it continued to decline. Mertens failed to repeat his first half performance and was replaced by Everton’s Kevin Mirallas half way through the second half.
There were very few chances after the half time break; Yeshchenko was found in space on the right hand side on the 80th minute mark, and probably should have hit the target. This opened the door to a more positive period of the game. Kevin Mirallas whipped a free-kick onto the post minutes after coming on.
With 5 minutes to go the Everton man was involved again, after linking up with Hazard, who – after a bit of trickery in the area – got a goal-bound shot away, but it was blocked and deflected out for a corner.
Belgium were really piling on the pressure in the dying minutes of the game, and the deadlock was finally (big emphasis) broken; brilliant work from Eden Hazard down the left side as he made his way into the box past two players and pulled it back to Origi, who made no mistake in putting the ball into the net.
The game concluded with what should have been a second goal for Belgium. Hazard again with a late burst to create a 4 v 2 situation – the ball was played to Mirallas who side footed it at the keeper, when perhaps really he should have put his laces through it.
Belgium will remain open to criticism, after another disappointing performance in Group H.
