itsbeautifuloutside

Algeria v Russia

Curitiba, 26th June 2014

Match Report

Well, it falls to me to do the last match report of the Group stages to go on the IBO website and I am pleased that it involves the Belgians. I don't for a second think that they are going to win the World Cup or anything, but they have really impressed me with the way they have gone about things. They have won all three of their matches while conceding just a single goal. All this while not playing very well at all. England, take note.

Belgium were going through to the last 16 whatever happened, so South Korea needed to attack and although they tried, it was never convincing and Marc Wilmot's side always looked comfortable . Courtois in particular looked calm and assured in goal.

In spite of all the attacking effort by the South Koreans, they should have really been 1-0 down when Mirallas shot and the ball found it's way to Mertens who managed to side foot over the bar from a bare six yards out.

There were a couple of moments that the Belgian defence had to deal with, firstly Ki Sung-yeung hit a piledriver from about 25 yards, which Courtois turned around the post. From the corner the ball bounced around in the penalty area, ending with Defour clearing it off the line.

Even when Belgium seemed to shoot themselves in the foot as Defour managed to get himself sent off with a simply stupid studs up tackle, it didn't seem to throw their cool, organised play. The strange thing was that even then, Wilmots seemed content to leave things as they were and . They didn't need to, with South Korea throwing everything at the Belgians, gaps soon started to appear at the back and Origi who had looked sharp for Belgium after coming on as a substitute, saw his shot parried by the keeper. Vertonghen though was on hand to slot in the winner.

Belgium now move on to play the USA in Salvador on Tuesday at 9pm. South Korea are already on their way home.

channonite