All of Belgium hoped for and believed that their national football team would easily defeat Japan in the World Cup quarter-finals. The Belgian footballers indeed secured a victory, but on Monday evening they made the fans tremble for more than 90 minutes. "The Red Devils" were trailing 0:2, but equalized the score, and scored the decisive goal in extra time, winning 3:2 and earning the right to face five-time world champion Brazil in the quarter-finals, according to lrytas.lt. "Magnificent", - described the scene witnessed the night before in yesterday's newspapers "Le Soir" and "La Derniere Heure". "Whew", - simply breathed "De Morgen". "What a resurrection", - still couldn't believe "Gazet van Antwerpen". "The Red Devils played a Russian roulette, but will introduce themselves to Brazil", - wrote "L'Echo" on the front page. "The Red Devils made it to the quarter-finals after a Japanese thriller", - stated "De Tijd". The atmosphere prevailing in Belgium before the match was revealed by a journalist from the newspaper "De Morgen": "With my colleague, we checked if there are rooms available in hotels in Kazan before the match. The number of rooms rejected by the Mexicans increased, and we planned to book them for the Belgian team when they were leading 2:0 or 3:0, at least a quarter of an hour before the final whistle of the referee". At halftime, the score was indeed 2:0, but it wasn't the right team that was leading. Belgium had to accomplish what no one had done in almost half a century in the World Cup matches. The last time in knockout matches, trailing by a two-goal margin, the German national team pulled off a miraculous comeback. This happened in 1970 during the quarter-final match where Germany defeated England with the same score of 3:2. However, Belgium's achievement was more impressive. If 48 years ago, the Germans defeated their rivals only in extra time, the Belgians managed to complete the mission in the second half, even in the referee's added time. Without overtime, a two-goal deficit or more was last eliminated in 1966. That time, the Portuguese footballers were behind the Korean DPR team by 0:3 in the quarter-finals, but they secured a victory 5:3. "These matches will go down in football history," did not doubt the newspaper "Het Laatste Nieuws" after the thrilling game. "We are still alive. But Belgium dangled on the edge". "The Brazilian dream almost turned into a Japanese nightmare", noted "Le Soir". Although "The Red Devils" made it to the quarter-finals for the second time in a row in the World Cup, the storyline of the match couldn't convince the Belgian football pundits who were waiting for a convincing victory. "Our physical advantage, not the game on the field, determined the victory", admitted "De Morgen". "Rostov near the Don became almost like Berezina for coach Roberto Martinez, as it was for Napoleon, and Stalingrad for Hitler. The young, strong, tall, and clever golden generation defeated the Japanese only in extra time. Due to overestimation of our strengths, we barely made it home". "The Red Devils" slipped through a needle hole. Great? No, very bad," claimed the headline of "De Morgen".
lrytas.lt
