Belgium’s collective group of star talent was expected to lead it to a deep run at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but after back-to-back winless results in Qatar, the Belgians are headed home.
A goal-less draw with Croatia eliminated Belgium from the World Cup and also saw Roberto Martinez step down as head coach. It was a disappointing end for the Belgians, with failed to score in each of their last two group stage matches.
VAR waived off an early penalty opportunity for Croatia despite Yannick Carrasco hacking down Andrej Kramaric inside of the box. Dejan Lovren was whistled for offsides in the build-up which referee Anthony Taylor did not notice during the original play.
Romelu Lukaku came off the bench for Belgium in the second half, but proceeded to have nightmarish day in front of goal. After striking the post and soaring a header over Croatia’s crossbar, Lukaku bundled Thorgan Hazard’s cross off of his chest on the goal-line, making it a comfortable save for Dominik Livakovic.
Thibaut Courtois finished with four saves for Belgium to keep Croatia off the scoreboard, but the Croatians edged Belgium to second place with the result. Croatia will meet Japan in the Round of 16 following the victory.
Here is a closer look at Thursday’s World Cup Rewind:
Japan 2, Spain 1
(Ritsu Doan 48′, Ao Tanaka 51′) – (Alvaro Morata 11′)
Japan overcome an early deficit to score two second-half goals on Thursday, edging Spain 2-1 and topping Group E in the process.
Ritsu Doan and Ao Tanaka scored three minutes apart to cancel out Alvaro Morata’s opener for Spain. Shuichi Gonda made four saves to preserve the historic win for Japan, setting up a Round of 16 date with Croatia.
Morata needed only 11 minutes to propel Luis Enrique’s side in front, powering a header from Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross into the back of the net. It was Morata’s third-straight goalscoring performance at the World Cup.
Japan battled back in the second half with substitute Doan coming off the bench and making an early impact. Doan rifled a shot into the top corner of Unai Simon’s net, giving Japan an equalizing goal and a spark of confidence.
Just moments after tying things up, Japan snatched a 2-1 lead with Ao Tanaka finishing off a pass from Kaoru Mitoma. Mitoma barely kept the ball in bounds before crossing to the middle of the box for Tanaka to slam home.
Spain piled on the pressure to try and claim an equalizer of its own, but its comeback attempt fell short. The Spanish will next meet Morocco in the Round of 16 while Japan takes on Croatia.
Costa Rica 2, Germany 4
(Yeltsin Tejeda 58′, Manuel Neuer OG 70′) – (Serge Gnabry 10′, Kai Havertz 73′, 85′, Niclas Fullkrug 89′)
Germany’s second-half comeback against Costa Rica gave them a 4-2 victory on Thursday, but Hansi Flick’s men witnessed their World Cup run end after just three matches.
Kai Havertz scored twice and Niclas Fullkrug also scored for the Germans, but Japan and Spain both surpassed Germany for the top-two spots in Group E.
A 10th minute opener from Serge Gnabry propelled the Germans in front early, but Costa Rica continued to fight and eventually got rewarded. Yeltsin Tejeda’s first career goal for his country tied things up in the 58th minute before a Manuel Neuer own goal boosted the Concacaf representatives in front with 20 minutes to play.
However, Germany swung momentum back in its favor as Chelsea attacker Kai Havertz scored twice in a 12-minute period to make it 3-2. Fullkrug played Havertz in towards goal in the 73rd minute before the veteran forward slotted home Gnabry’s assist in the 85th.
Fullkrug added his second goal of the tournament prior to stoppage time, giving the Germans a fourth tally of the match. However, results elsewhere condemned Germany to a second-straight group stage exit in World Cup play.
Canada 1, Morocco 2
(Naif Aguerd OG 40′) – (Hakim Ziyech 4′, Youssef En-Nesyri 23′)
Morocco remained unbeaten in Qatar and topped Group F on Thursday following a 2-1 victory over already-eliminated Canada.
Hakim Ziyech and Youssef En-Nesyri both scored their first World Cup goals while goalkeeper Yassine Bounou didn’t have to make a single save against the Canadian attack.
It was all Morocco in the early going with Ziyech calling his own number in the fifth minute to score the opening goal. The Chelsea winger chipped past Milan Borjan after lackluster defending at the back for Canada.
Achraf Hakimi’s through-ball down the wing allowed En-Nesyri the opportunity to latch onto the fullback’s pass. En-Nesyri then edged Kamal Miller before beating Borjan at his near post for a 2-0 Morocco lead.
Sam Adekugbe’s dangerous cross in the 40th minute deflected past Bounou to give Canada a lifeline before halftime. Naif Aguerd was the unfortunate Morocco player to watch the cross deflect in off of him.
Atiba Hutchinson rattled the crossbar in the second half as Canada fought to grab an equalizing goal, but it was the best chance for John Herdman’s squad to tie things up.
Canada exits the World Cup with zero points from three matches, while Morocco advances into the knockout stage.
Germany have nothing but Champions Leagues players. 2 consecutive WCs they’ve had Champions League players. Belgium has Champions League players. Uruguay has Champions leagues players. All of these countries are out in the group stage. You can’t convince me at all that the World Cup is somehow below Champions League. Even questioning getting paid by your day job or playing for your country is an easy choice. Australia, Korea, Morocco, Japan don’t have starting XI’s all in the Champions League and those countries are in the round of 16.
I kind of feel bad for Lukaku. How does that one ball not go in?
The amount of talented dual nationals coming from every country is helping with parity in world International football.
I thought this would be a WC full of surprises and it has lived up to it so far. I thought Costa Rica would bunker down more after going up 2-1 to Germany. That would have been crazy if both Germany and Spain fell at the group stage.
Whoo, doggy, I would hate to be Lukaku right now. I can’t even imagine what his Twitter feed looks like. He might need to request asylum in East Kalamazoo or something…I can’t imagine Waffle Land is a friendly place for him right now. Or ever. That one’s going to linger, probably the rest of his life. Well, they were assuredly due…the Soccer Gods once blessed the Waffles with Wondolowski in their moment of desperation…and the Soccer Gods duly tooketh away again with Lukaku. Karma’s a weird and twisty thing.
Shocking day. At another point I was literally looking on in wonder as both Spain and Germany were trailing and it very much looked like Japan and Costa Rica were going to get out of Group…there’d have been bookies jumping out of windows on about six different continents if that had gone down.
One thing that’s readily apparent is, nobody’s remotely unbeatable. Even Brazil looks a whole lot more ordinary without Neymar.
And there’s a ton of highly-ranked teams already gone. One suspects there’s going to be a lot of surprises in the knockouts. I might almost bet on Japan if they hadn’t somehow lost to Costa Rica. (And then beat Spain and Germany…has anybody ever managed that particular combination of results, like, ever?)
Did anyone have Morocco and Japan winning their respective groups? How about both Belgium and Germany out in the group stage? We’re witnessing increasing parity at the WC, with a lot of attractive football.
Around the 70 minute, both Spain and Germany were going out and Costa Rica and Japan were going through. If Costa Rica could have held on to the lead, they would have been through; Neuer had a terrible game coughing up those two goals. Spain only goes through because they smashed Costa Rica in their first game.
I know this will bring some people no end of amusement but I usually have 1-2 “second teams” whose games I make sure I watch atop the US in such tournaments, kind of like soccer tourism. I picked Japan. I stared a hole in the qualified team list and liked their chances in their group. I expected more of Germany but thought Japan would beat the often underwhelming Spain (save 2010) and CR, and go through. Honestly I thought as second to Germany. Ironically they beat the two perceived big dogs then lost to the Central Americans.
Germany to me like they seemed to be playing something like 433 Berhalter Ball at a walking pace like they didn’t want to be there or were playing a friendly or something. They looked dangerous when they took wingbacks on and squared balls back to the spot but most of the time they just slowly passed around the perimeter which is predictable and easy to defend. But for that matter I thought they looked a little young and sloppy. I didn’t feel like I was watching a Brazil with a bunch of sharp mature soccer players. There were a few too many half baked Gotze types. German teams are usually so drilled, direct, fast, technical. Maybe they didn’t like the heat but they didn’t look like their predecessors on quality.