Belgium serene, Croatia pleased, Morocco undecided on the road to the World Cup

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The window of international matches that has just ended has sparked a lot of discussion in Canada for all sorts of reasons.

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What about the other Group F teams that will be part of the Reds in the 2022 Men’s World Cup? Overview.

Again the Belgian old guard

The average Belgian fan doesn’t have a good 3rd of June. To start their League of Nations campaign, the Red Devils lost 4-1 in Brussels against Dutch rivals. Belgium have not fallen much against the Netherlands at home since December 14, 1996, with Jaap Stam – Jaap Stam! – managing a killer pass for Dennis Bergkamp, ​​moreover.

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Eleven days later, the Belgians can tell RTBF that it has a slap in the face do goodnoting that the subsequent collection of seven to nine points could be a clear round.

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A 6-1 win against Poland in Brussels, a 1-1 draw in Cardiff and a 1-0 win in Warsaw put the Belgian second in their group behind the Dutch. The big win in this series of battles? Perhaps center back Leander Dendoncker, established in three consecutive national team meetings for the first time.

[Dendoncker, Toby Alderweireld et Jan Verthongen] Poland was already prevented in the first leg against the extraordinary No. 9 this, said coach Roberto Martinez, quoted by RTBF, as referring to striker Robert Lewandowski. On Tuesday night, they took good control of the opponents, they showed an incredible personality. It was a joy to see them. I think Leander Dendoncker scored a lot of points for the World Cup pick.

That being said, underline Ludo Vandewalle on Het Nieuwsbladthe four game majority was announced as Roberto Martinez does not intend to abandon the previous generation. The journalist targets 21 players whose ticket for Qatar seems to have been confirmed, and the names are well known: the Courtois, Boyata, Meunier, Witsel, Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku …

But it will take a new boss one day, and Youri Tielemans appears to be the perfect candidate. The Leicester midfielder, who has been linked with Axel Witsel in three games, had many good shots and offered a nice cross to Michy Batshuayi for the only goal in Poland.

A great leader, Tielemans served as a warning to the other group, who suffered a late equalizer in Wales and almost played that ugly trick in Poland.

We suffered again and we had to work to kill the fight, score the second goal to cover, Tielemans said into the RTBF microphone. But here it is, Simon [Mignolet] made very good saves and we had a bit of luck that gave us success.

Otherwise, another big question mark, says former coach René Vandereycken, is the Devils ’ability to create something on the edges when the opponent blocks the axis. For him, the solution will not come from pistons like Timothy Castagne or Thorgan Hazard.

These people don’t trust their dribbling skills, Vandereycken wrote Het Nieuwsblad. But there are those who have it in them. Yannick Carrasco can do it, but if he has to take care of the entire corridor, his actions will suffer. Jeremy Doku can do that too, but he’s too limited on defense to be the only person on the side.

The lesson croats

Euphoria in Croatia! For the first time, the Vatreni beat these Blues who have never mastered since they met them, in the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

With a penalty shot from timeless Luka Modric, the Croats won 1-0 over Saint-Denis, at least, to end a badly started international window, on June 3, with a 3-0 defeat at home against Austria. But we are not talking about it anymore.

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Tomislav Dasovic, daily journalist List of Vecernji, also convinced that the evil referee stole the 2018 final from his country, took his poetic pen to call the Croatian performance a lesson in the temple of french football.

This match showed all the value of the Modric trio, [Marcelo] Brozovic at [Mateo] Kovacic, he wrote. No other national team has such a concentration of talent – and especially not France, which only relies on runners without a blast of creativity when matadors are like that. [du sélectionneur Zlatko] Dalic appeared on the other side.

Modric, who was more temperamental, had already met France the black beast from Croatia. That time is over. Croatia, who drew Didier Deschamps ’side on June 6 before beating Denmark four days later, are 2nd in their group in Nations League A while France face relegation to League B.

Dasovic also emphasizes the work of two defensive players from the Croatian championship: goalkeeper Ivica Ivusic (currently at Osijek, but also spent by Inter, in particular) and center back Josip Sutalo (Dinamo Zagreb ), who played his first two games for the national team against Denmark and France without giving the opponent a goal.

Against the Blues, right-back Josip Stanisic is playing his fifth game for his country. Center-back Martin Erlic, his third. Guys who played on defense will go to Qatar if they continue like this, said coach Dalic after the match against France. They will take a well-deserved temporary vacation, after 4 games in 10 days, a schedule inhuman according to Modric.

The Moroccan surprise box

There is no League of Nations in Africa, but qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2023. With a yield of six points in two games, a small draw in their last two meetings is enough for the Lions of l ‘ Atlas the tournament.

Are you all right, Madame la Marquise? No!

If $ 5 had to be deducted from manager Vahid Halilhodzic’s salary for every criticism he receives these days, the Bosnian has long volunteered. It is rumored that before the international window, Halilhodzic failed to help his goal on June 1, with a sad 3-0 defeat against the United States in Cincinnati.

A real failurewritten by journalist Amine El Amri, from Morningwho argues thatnot really only worked for the coach, insomnia now awaits.

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If Halilhodzic worked night and day to correct his team’s shortcomings, the fruit of his labor would not be convincing. As a result, Morocco has twice won qualifying for CAN, 2-1 against South Africa and 2-0 against Liberia (two of the four goals were scored by Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri), but the local press continues to regret the poor. game of lions.

Morocco wasted many chances in their opener against Bafana Bafana and only recorded the winning goal in the 88th minute. Under the circumstances, the Moroccan players seemed to understand that we could criticize them. Captain Romain Saïss even allowed himself a comment that could be interpreted as an arrow towards the coach.

There are really things we need to strive for, because against teams with a better level, we have more to deal with. In tactics, we need to thrive to expect something to be done in the World Cup, he told Morning. We didn’t want to go there to lose three games and come back with remorse.

Morocco also collected three points against Liberia, but we regret a performance that was even lower than the level shown against South Africa. The press fired the coach again for the many changes he made to his formation from match to match. The Atlas Lions special site summarizes by warning supporters: Don’t look for Vahid type XI, it doesn’t exist.

After a victory tastelessaccording to OpinionHalilhodzic says he doesn’t understand public expectations.

We are not favorites in our group, which is one of the hardest in the World Cup, he told Arryadia TV. We will play against the vice-world champion, the team that finished 3rd, the best team in North America… it will be a World Cup that is very difficult for us.

The next international window will open on September 19 for a duration of nine days, with the possibility of two matches. One last chance for Belgium and Croatia to reach the Nations League finals, and for Morocco and Canada to compare themselves to rivals from other regions.

Source: Radio-Canada

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