Back to Belgium v Italy. Hazard is not a captain. Belgium look like an all-star team who've had 2 practices together. Back to the drawing board - it will get easier for the next one.
Belgium should have had a PK in the 87' minute when Chellini held/threw down Fellanni on a corner kick. The ref saw the incident, since he called both players over, and it was clearly a foul, but he didn't have the guts to make the call....
I think Belgium looked well except for the speed in the final third. You have to play quicker to break down that blue concrete. And they did not handle so well the Italian game plan of the long balls
Well that was a rather brilliant game to watch! Italy making teams look overrated once again, you gotta love it! Fantastic defensive display, although a bit questionable at times in attack but at the end of the day they won, even without Insigne, Bernardeschi, Marchisio and Verratti. Belgium, not that bad of a performance but Italy were the better team at the end of the day! However I am not so sure about Belgium being Euro contenders or being one of the best teams in Europe like lots of people say they are, if anything it is the opposite if you know what I mean.
They should celebrate like that. It was an unbelievable performance against a team few, if any, gave them a chance of beating. They did so with quite a performance and should reward the fans who showed up for them, when so many of us criticized them heavily entering the tournament. Guts to make the call you say, what about the goal kick call instead of a penalty when Giaccherini was hacked down in the first half. Sometime these thing even themselves out.... Bonucci was sensational - there was a hint of Cannavaro circa World Cup 2006 with a dash of Pirlo's passing to boot.
Ok then it is perhaps myself rating Italy pretty hight for the crook factor so that the win wasnt a surprise to me
Not even close to the 'best ever' (that label belongs to the Pfaff, Gerets, Van Der Elst, Vandereycken, Ceulemans generation). Even the team with Preud'Homme, Grun, Staelens, Scifo, Wilmots, Oliveira and Nilis was better.
Not really. Injuries + Hazard being totally out-of-form makes me believe that even the Belgium of 2-3 years ago was better. They're still dangerous though ...