Belgium will meet Senegal in the last 32 after beating New Zealand 5-1 to finish top of Group G, and Leandro Trossard was the one who made the result feel inevitable. He scored twice, including Belgium’s first goal that came from the team itself at the tournament, before Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Charles De Ketelaere all added to the scoreline.
The timing matters because the win settled Belgium’s route immediately before a knockout match with Senegal, the next step in a tournament that had not always looked smooth for Rudi Garcia’s side. Belgium had already reached 29 goals in qualifying without losing, but the coach still had to answer for the criticism aimed at his players after an article in La Libre compared De Bruyne with a washed-up Hollywood actor following the match against Iran.
Garcia did not hide his irritation. “I really didn’t appreciate them being called has beens,” he said, pushing back against the idea that Belgium were finished even after they had topped their group. He added that when a nation has players of that calibre, it should support them, and he made clear that the target in the match with New Zealand was first place, which is exactly what Belgium got.
The numbers behind the win explain why Belgium move on with some force behind them. Trossard’s opener arrived at the 45th attempt at a goal of their own at the tournament and after more than 200 minutes of play, ending a strange stretch in which Belgium had only scored from an own goal against Egypt. Lukaku struck 56 seconds after coming off the bench, De Ketelaere scored as well, and Jérémy Doku, De Ketelaere and Lukaku were all improving in fitness before the Senegal match, while Zeno Debast was available for his first minutes of the competition after a leg injury.
There is still a gap between a commanding group finish and what comes next. Senegal reached this stage as the strongest third-placed team from a very hard group with France, Norway and Iraq, while Belgium arrive with a clean recent record of 16 months without defeat and a qualifying run that included back to back sixes and a 7-0 win over Liechtenstein, plus a 5-2 friendly victory over Mauricio Pochettino’s side in Atlanta in March this year. Garcia said he wished Belgium had won every game, but the past will not help them now; what will matter is whether the performance that finally broke open against New Zealand can carry into Belgium Vs Senegal.
