Well, to be honest I predicted this, regardless it still hurts to see how ridiculious Belgium was and played. The difference was already to be spotted at the anthems. Whereas few Belgians sang or tried, the entire Italian team screamed it out. A team.
Second difference was the mentality, Belgium would, so called & predicted, roll the Italians into cannelloni. Not. Italy was great defensively, their organisation was a rock, they had a nervous start, but grew a lot in the game and hurt Belgium where it's weak point was the biggest.
Third difference was the most obvious one, the coaches. Marc Wilmots is ruining a golden generation. Like I've mentioned in the friendlies before the EC. There is zero gameplay, tactical choices, running lines, ... And the defense gets overrun fast and easy. Conté put his pions perfectly, they were smart, fast in intercepting and knew exactly what to do.
Now about the players on Belgian side,
Courtois did his job as usual, saved Belgium from a humilation (if it's not already).
Ciman, well you can't expect much better, the goal was partly on him and partly on Alderweireld.
Alderweireld played shitty. He should've had that header.. After the goal it was bad in long balls, defending (Pelle was owning him)
Vermaelen was better than expected
Vertonghen intercepted Candreva a few times, but still easily beaten at most times. Offensively awful.
Witsel, fuck I hate that dipshit. He literally only passes to the back or to the sides. He did intercept a few balls, but he brings so little offensively.. Dembélé would be a better pick on his position.
Nainggolan brought most danger, intercepted a lot, tried to play fast. He had his mistakes, but subbing him off? Ridiculious.
Fellaini is trash when he starts. We all know it, but Wilmots doesn't. This fucker didn't even do the one thing he was on the pitch for, win aerial duals (even Eder won against him
)
De Bruyne was the worst player on the pitch, it almost felt like he did it on purpose, absolutely nothing went well. He is a #10. Not a winger. ffs
Hazard tried to be Maradona, he played quite decent, was the most active Belgian today, but giving him the free role fucks up the system. He was everywhere and nowhere. Constantly conflicting with De Bruyne and Mertens towards the end.
Lukaku, you fucker. Can't even finish or win duels. Fucker.
Subs
Mertens : brought action, but it almost never delivers. Played godawful
Origi :
Why not Batshuayi? You know, a striker who actually scored more than 5 goals this season :yuno:
Carrasco : Too late, too little time and no system. Talent being wasted by this dipshit coach.
Wilmots; You dense, shit, fucker, asshole of a coach. Tactic zero. De Bruyne on the right
Fellaini starting
Subbing Nainggolan
suddenly reversing to a 3-6-1 without any preparation
I still stand by my prediction. Belgium will not qualify to the second round, and even if they did, Spain or Croatia most likely awaits them.
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I feel sorry for you. If you wanted an example of how important a good coach with clear ideas vs a bad coach it was tonights game. Italys players didnt have to look half the time. They knew were they were going to be. How did this Wilmots guy get the job? I genuinely know nothing about him
Well Wilmots was a great footballer in his day, even won the Euro cup with Bordeaux, known as the 'Kampfschwein' in the Germany. He was a good footballer. Attacker though. He got the job because he was the assistant of Dick Advocaat, who was a coach for Belgium a couple months and left to Russia after. Then he was the assistant of Georges Leekens, but he left to coach a Belgian team. So they elected Wilmots. They think he did a good job because Belgium suddenly became #1 on the ranking list (which is a complete joke)
Anyway, entire Belgium wants him out. And seeing Nainggolan's reaction on the bench, the players do too.