Belgium secured a place in the last eight of the European championship on Sunday evening. The team of national coach Roberto Martínez was 1-0 too strong for Portugal, the reigning European champions in Seville. Thorgan Hazard provided the only goal of the game with a nice bang. The big blemish on the victory was the failure of Kevin De Bruyne. The midfielder was hit from behind by João Palhinha in the first half and had to stop the fight shortly after the break. Belgium will meet Italy in the quarterfinals, which settled with Austria (2-1 after extra time) on Saturday.
Martínez made a number of changes to his starting line-up compared to the last group match against Finland. Dedryck Boyata and Jason Denayer gained confidence in the last line in the group stage, but were sacrificed before the game against Portugal. The pair were replaced in defense by Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. Alderweireld played the entire game against Russia and Denmark, but did not play against Finland. Nacer Chadli and Jérémy Doku also lost their starting spot. On the Portuguese side, there was again no starting spot for Bruno Fernandes, who started on the bench, just like against France (2-2).
The first danger of the game came from Diogo Jota’s foot in a not very uplifting first half. The attacker was set free in front of Thibaut Courtois, but saw his attempt go wide. The Belgian goalie had to take action on a free kick by Cristiano Ronaldo. The superstar suddenly tried from about thirty meters, after which Courtois had to release. In the second instance, the Real Madrid goalkeeper managed to save on a header. The first time that Belgium showed up dangerously in front of Rui Patrício, it was immediately hit.
On the stroke of half-time, Thomas Meunier looked for the combination with Thorgan Hazard on the left side of the field, after which the latter put the ball well in front of his right and scored effectively in the far corner: 1-0. The biggest downer on the Belgian side soon followed in the second half, when De Bruyne indicated that he could not continue. The star player was tapped by Palhinha in the first act and had to stop the fight early. However, he saw from the side how his team remained on their feet quite easily after the break. Among other things, a shot by Jota ended up over Courtois’ goal.
In the last quarter of the game it was mainly referee Felix Brych who had to act several times in order not to derail the game. The German arbiter also received a yellow card for Pepe, who with his 38 years and 121 days after Sunday is the oldest field player ever in the basis of a match in the knockout phase of a European championship. The last achievement of the match came from the foot of Raphaël Guerreiro. The defender suddenly took a deflected ball onto the shoe and hit the post.
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