World Cup Recap: Belgium Finish Off England for Best-Ever World Cup Finish

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SteemSports Presenter:@thesportsguy

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SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets

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Counter-attack, counter-attack, counter-attack, in the end it was Belgium's greatest weapon that put England to bed in their showdown for third place. In an entertaining match, both sides played open and it led to a fun match to watch, as both England and Belgium put forth a good effort in a match that can be a tough sell to the players. Losing in a semifinal is excruciatingly painful and the prospects of having to play another match other than the final just a few days later can easily be dismissed by the players. Belgium and England bought-in and put forth a good effort in Russia 2018's second-to-last match, and the excitement got started very early in this one.

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In just the 4' of action, Belgium was already attacking, and their first counter-attack of the match found Chadli running up the left side as he worked it up the pitch and whipped a great ball in - a low cross - and Meunier was there first for Belgium as he put it past Pickford to open up the scoring. Rose wasn't tracking back for England and Meunier took off on a terrific run and beat everyone to the spot and was able to poke home Chadli's beautiful cross in for the earliest goal Belgium have ever scored in a World Cup match.

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Everyone was expecting a more open, exciting match and they got it right from the early-going. England had one less day to prepare for the match, and it led to 5 changes for the Three Lions to their starting 11. Rose was one of those changes and his failure to get back helped lead to the early goal.

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The early push from Belgium continued as Lukaku, who was looking to push England's Harry Kane for the Golden Boot, made a great run, but a rare bad touch from Belgium's De Bruyne ended the threat. Lukaku came into the third place match with 4 goals and 1 assist, trailing Kane by a pair.

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As Lukaku and Belgium continued to push in the early going, De Bruyne got the ball at the back post as England did a poor job of clearing, but his shot was saved by Pickford as England struggled with the Belgium counter-attack once again. The Red Devils were able to move quickly up the pitch to setup the effort. The spacing was excellent in the early going for the Belgians and causing England problems.

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The first half moved forward with Delph getting England's first shot on goal in the 14', but his effort wasn't struck with enough pace and it rolled right to Courtois. Belgium quickly got back up the pitch once again, and it was Lukaku in on goal, but his last touch just got away from him and the Belgian threat ended with a goal kick.

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Sterling started to get free for England as the half wore on, but he held the ball a bit too long in the box in the 18' as England looked to threaten. His feed to Kane in the 24' set-up England's best effort to that point, but Kane appeared to not catch it quite right and his effort was pulled a tad and wide of goal. It was a good, solid effort but not to be.

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Belgium once again came back and De Bruyne and Lukaku continued to cause problems for England. As the injury time was running out in the first half, Lukaku was able to get free and receive a through-ball while streaking ahead, but his shot was blocked out for a corner. In an extremely rare decision by the referee, the half ended without Belgium taking the subsequent corner as he ruled that enough time had passed and blew the whistle. While England owned the possession advantage, Belgium owned a slight shot advantage at 8-6 and deservingly took the 1-0 advantage into the locker room as they were the better side in the opening 45'.

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England were looking to rally in the second half and a pair of changes coming out of the locker room seemed to spark them on after the intermission. Rashford came on for Sterling, and Lingard replaced Rose and the Three Lions looked instantly better out of the second half gates.

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After Hazard got free in the 49' with a tremendous run up the pitch, weaving his way through the England defense, but ultimately turning in the box to find no options, England began to take control of the match. A beautiful ball-in was cause for concern a few moments later for Belgium as they were forced to deal with the dangerous cross and it led to an English corner. Lingard made a great effort in the 55' after some poor defending from Witsel and Kane just missed getting a boot to the ball as it came across the face of the goal.

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As the English effort looked much better early in the second half, Belgium captain Eden Hazard was still causing problems with his possession on the counter-attack. Hazard has been one of the best, if not the best player in this tournament when it comes to attacking with the ball and his presence was felt once again throughout this match.

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His efforts led to the Lukaku getting another great look as it appeared that the big man was going to move one goal closer to England's Kane, but his first touch was once again too heavy as he broke through the box open on goal, and Pickford was able to cover it. A few moments later Mertens came on for Lukaku as the big man's tournament came to an end, and he exited having a couple of solid opportunities to add to his tally, and ultimately played an overall great tournament.

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England continued to control the second half as time wore on and it seemed as though it was only going to be a matter of time before they broke through with the equalizer. That moment nearly came in the 70' when Dier received a great combination back in the box and got an open look on goal. His only option was to chip it over the large frame of the on-rushing Courtois, and his flick was just a tad too soft as it was kicked away at the last moment by a sliding Belgian defender. It was a great effort all-the-way around from the give-and-go by Dier, to the flick, to the superb sliding save to preserve the 1-0 advantage to Belgium.

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The second half dominance continued for England with a free kick from fairly close range in the 72' but nothing came of the cross in. Belgium continued their counter-attack and were once again off and running, but Mertens fired wildly from the box and his effort was well off-target. Belgium started getting better with their counter-attack and turning away England in their back third and it led to another run and effort in the 80' as Pickford came up with a tremendous save.

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The constant counter-attack threat proved too much for England, however, as just a couple of minutes later it was Hazard breaking through and this time there was nothing Pickford or England could do. De Bruyne played the ball perfectly ahead to a streaking Hazard as he got past everyone and delivered a solid strike from 6 yards away to the near post for his third goal of the tournament and slammed the door shut on England in the 82'. De Bruyne's through-pass was perfectly weighted and the captain wasn't going to miss from that close as he drilled it into the bottom left-hand corner to double Belgium's lead to 2-0.

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The goal was well-deserved from Hazard and showed just how deadly the Belgian counter-attack can be as England had really done a great job of controlling the second half only to have one pass and run foil it all. In the end, it was a fun match to watch and a good effort from both sides. It was a fairly clean match overall and Hazard was terrific once again just as he had been the entire tournament for Belgium. England sported their youngest lineup ever in a World Cup match at the onset of the game and were tied with France for the second-youngest squad in this World Cup behind only Nigeria. While England wasn't able to "bring it home" in the end, their 4th place finish should be applauded as the cupboard appears to be plenty full going forward for the Three Lions. They will be much-fancied come 4 years from now in Qatar with all of the young talent they possess. Meanwhile, it's the best finish ever for Belgium at a World Cup, bettering their 4th-place finish in 1986, and although they just missed out on the ultimate prize, this group have to be considered the greatest group Belgium have ever had.

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