Belgium won the third place position this evening after beating England 2:0. The Belgians showed their intent with a 4th minute goal tapped in by Meunier.
This score was maintained for much of the match as the Belgians appeared satisfied to sit back, maintain possession of the ball and try quick forays into the territory of the English. The English team did not pose too much of a threat to the Belgian aside from a few scares.
Belgium doubled their lead in the 82nd minute through an Eden Hazard goal, sealing their third place position in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
After the match, the Belgian Coach, Roberto Martinez said “We wanted to win it. When you beat Brazil and get into the semi-final, the focus has to be to try to win the World Cup. But you need to be realistic when you finish the tournament and look back. These players made history back in Belgium and that’s all that matters. These players deserve to have that accolade.
“The generation of Mexico 86 set a real inspiration and real vision for all the footballers in Belgium. Now this group of players overcame that and that’s historic; it took 32 years to be able to be in this position, so there’s real satisfaction and real success. It’s the manner we achieved that – the football we played is Belgian football, it’s our brand. And the togetherness and flexibility we had tactically shows what we want to be as a footballing nation.
“It has been a really nice journey, a really successful journey but in football you need to look forward and try to improve in the next opportunity that we have.”
For Gareth Southgate the English coach, he had nothing but praise for his team. He said “In the end we are very proud of what we’ve done. We’re under no illusions as to where we stand as a team; we’ve finished in the final four but we’re not a top-four team yet, we know that and we’ve never hidden behind that.
“Against the very best teams we’ve come up short but we’ve had a wonderful adventure and some experiences that will stand this group of players and staff in really good stead for the future. I couldn’t ask any more of any of the players today or right the way through the seven weeks we’ve worked together.”