The world no.1 Belgium have lost to France by 3-2 in the semi-final match of the UEFA Nations League. France recovered from two goals down to beat them. Theo Hernandez’s last-minute goal sent them straight to the final. France will face Spain on 10 October in the final.
Match Review
The game between France and Belgium became a thrilling match at Allianz stadium. All of the best players of both teams have played in this semi-final. In the 37th minute, Belgium midfielder Yannick Carrasco scored the first goal from the midfield maestro Kavin de Bruyne’s pass. Within three minutes, Belgium doubled the lead. The big man Romelu Lukaku helped Belgium to take a 2-0 lead in the 40th minute. Kevin de Bruyne passed the ball to Lukaku and he made no mistake to score. As a result, Belgium took a 2-0 lead against the World Champion France before halftime.
In the second half, France became desperate to score goals. They were creating chances to find the net. In the 62nd minute, Real Madrid number nine Karim Benzema scored the first goal in this match. Kylian Mbappe passed the ball to him in the box. Benzema took the shot and found the net.
In the 69th minute, Belgium’s defender fouled Antoine Griezmann in the box. As a result, the match referee gave a penalty for this foul. Kylian Mbappe took the penalty shot. He did not miss the penalty. So France equalized with this goal in the 69th minute.
The third and final goal came from Theo Hernandez’s bullet shot. He scored just before the 90 minutes. Belgium could not score goals in the remaining minutes. So after 90 minutes, France beat Belgium to play in the final against Spain.
Reactions
Belgium manager Roberto Martinez spoke to the media after the match. He said,
We let France come back and then it became very difficult. It was all about details. It’s too bad that we didn’t control the match better. We stopped playing football. It went downhill. And against a team like France, that is punished. We threw away all our hard work.
