The Belgian coach was very satisfied with the performance of the Red Devils after the 4 – 0 victory against Hungary. The Red Devils dominated the match and had a lead with 1 – 0 before the break. Towards the end of the second half they scored three more goals. The Hungarian team had also some chances and would have deserved a goal.
With the victory yesterday evening (26 June), the Red Devils qualified for the quarterfinals of the European Championship and will play against Wales on Friday in Lille.
Marc Wilmots, who was celebrating his fiftieth match in charge of the Belgian national team, was pleased that his team had found the right balance. "Our 4-2-3-1 holds well. The defense kept the zero for the third time in a row and my four offensive players created a lot of chances and scored 4 goals.
"The only downside was that we didn’t score more goals before the break," the coach continued. “It should have been 2 – 0 or 3 – 0 before the break. The players were a bit nervous because of these missed opportunities but finished the job in the second half.”
The Belgian captain Eden Hazard who scored one of the goals and contributed to another goal said it was his best game for the national team.
“Can we play better as a team?” he asked. “Difficult to say because we were so good.”
The coach Marc Wilmots was full of praise for Eden Hazard. “Many were surprised that I had chosen him as captain of the team. But this is how you make a player grow by giving him more responsibility. I know enough about his potential and asked him to go for the goal.”
“It was impossible to take the ball from him. He is like Kevin De Bruyne, someone who gives the team the necessary calm.”
Belgium and Wales have played four times against each-other in the last four years. "We know them very well, they have several exceptional players. I know we had great difficulty to score against them but this time we’ll go for it,” Wilmots said.
The coach is happy that the match will take place in Lille, near the Belgian border. "I don’t know how our supporters will get tickets. The stadium Pierre Mauroy has 55,000 seats but 150,000 Belgians could easily fill the stadium in my opinion."
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
