“We have to wake up”: the desperation of the Belgian coach after the defeat against Egypt

The Belgian national teamwhich reaches the Qatar 2022 World Cup being the second best placed in the World rankings behind Brazil, he didn’t close the last preparation match in the best way. This Friday, the team training Robert Martinez suffered a heavy defeat from Egypt 2-1 at Kuwait’s Jaber Al-Hamad International Stadium. After losing the match, some of the protagonists of the match spoke at the end of the match.

Although the Belgians started the match with possession and near-supreme control, the team whose star is Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah were able to make the difference in the 34th minute of the first half when the midfielder Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne made a mistake and walked away Mostafa Muhammad Hand in hand to stamp the 1-0. Early in the plug-in, Trézeguet extended his lead after a deep pass from Mo Salah for the 2-0 partial.

Although the team performed well into injury time in the second half, Belgium’s first goal came late from striker Lois Openda, who came on as a substitute at half-time. After the defeat, Martínez spoke at a press conference about the result of the friendly.

“Now we have to wake up because the World Cup is starting and I’m sure we will react”, quoted the Spanish coach who took charge of the squad at the end of 2016. He then added: “We haven’t had the normal amount of time to prepare for a World Cup.” To conclude, while acknowledging that his team has not shown the performance required by the ecumenical tournament, the coach redeemed a positive aspect considering that his debut at the Qatar 2022 World Cup will be next Wednesday against Canada in Group F. “We have no injuries, something is something”the coach said in agreement.

In addition to the coach’s word, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco and Axel Witsel, both players of Atlético de Madrid, gave their opinion on the match. “We must learn the lesson of mistakes” and prepare for the first match of the World Cup”, said Carrasco thinking of moving on and adding: “unfortunately it was a bit complicated“. But in Witsel’s word, more serenity was needed.

“Losing against Egypt is not a huge blow for the team,” said Axel. Witsel was clear on why the team lost to Egypt and focused on the team. “We have not respected certain positionss that the coach had asked for both in defense and with ball possession”, analyzed the player. The truth is that the national team will debut in five days and will have to turn the page to get to the official debut in the best possible way.