On Monday, the G group teams started their fights in the World Cup, and in the first match, the Belgian national team won a convincing victory.
World Cup debutant Panama held on in the first half, but in the second half had to acknowledge the opponents' superiority and after conceding three goals allowed the Belgians to secure a 3-0 victory and the first three points on their account.
The Belgians started the meeting actively and already in the first six minutes had several good opportunities to score. However, both Yannick Carrasco and Dries Mertens' shots were saved by Panama's goalkeeper Jaime Penedo.
In the 11th minute, Panama captain Roman Torres made a serious mistake, unsuccessfully passing the ball near the goal to Eden Hazard, but the "Chelsea" representative failed to hit the target.
After this incident, Belgian players made some mistakes when passing the ball and failed to create any chances in front of the opponents' goal for some time, but they managed to create a dangerous attack only in the 21st minute, when the same R. Torres saved his team. After a sharp pass from Kevin De Bruyne, he was the first to reach the ball and wanted to send it to Romelu Lukaku, who was waiting near the empty goal.
At the end of the first half, E. Hazard broke into the penalty area dangerously, but once again he failed to outplay the opponent's goalkeeper. R. Lukaku and D. Mertens also had their chances, but they lacked accuracy and after the first half, the score was tied 0-0.
In the second half, the Belgians started actively again, but this time it paid off very quickly. With a fantastic shot from the edge of the penalty area, D. Mertens scored a goal and brought his team ahead 47 minutes into the game.
Just a few minutes later, Panama had their first great opportunity to score in the history of the World Cup: Michael Murillo received a great pass and found himself alone against the opponent's goalkeeper, but Thibaut Courtois managed to block the shot.
After this incident, the Belgians took the initiative back into their hands, and eventually managed to score their second goal. After a great pass from K. De Bruyne, R. Lukaku scored with his head from close range, and in the 69th minute, his team was already leading 2-0.
After the second goal, the Panama national team started to play more actively and immediately were punished for it - in a quick counterattack, E. Hazard led R. Lukaku one-on-one with the goalkeeper, who confidently sent the ball into the opponent's goal for the second time.
Throughout the remainder of the match, Panama sought an honorable goal and had their chances, as did the Belgians. However, neither side was able to score, and the Belgian national team celebrated the victory.
Job done for @BelRedDevils #BELPAN // #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/8uWR1saqrW — FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 18, 2018
Next up for #BEL and #PAN... @BelRedDevils: #TUN @fepafut: #ENG #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/xQjFHbFMe9 — FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 18, 2018
