The World Cup of Russia is over, but at the time of the balance sheets, it is the semi-final France-Belgium of July 10 which will remain in the Belgian annals instead. On the two public service channels, four million fans had seen their dream of the cup final evaporate against the French.

This is the audience record of this World Cup for Belgian TV, with 80% market share on both sides of the language border. The Red Devils still ensured on Saturday 82.9% of audience shares (PDA) RTBF and 88.6% to VRT, while they were fighting for bronze against England. On Sunday, 891,727 viewers on (69% PDA) and 1,286,249 on the VRT (81,3% PDA) viewed the coronation of France against Croatia in cup final. This represents a little less than 2.2 million Belgians.

Earlier in the same day, the festivities related to the return of the Red Devils in Belgium were followed by 358.969 viewers on average, for an audience share of 46.7%, says the RTBF. RTL Belgium has recorded an average of 149,500 viewers between 11:30 and 16:00, according to figures available Monday afternoon. The tribute to the national team also attracted 689,668 Flemish supporters (51.2% PDA) on the VRT and 223,000 fans on average on the private channel VTM.

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The final game vs. Croatia was quite an interesting one, and Kylian Mbappé, the 19 year-old new star, showed the World he can have a very successful career. Let’s now have a look at the upcoming years. The last teams that won the World Cup were kicked out after the first round 4 years later. Will France confirm that trend in 2022?

Come on Belgium!

While the French expats were under pressure ahead of the final game yesterday, thousands of Belgians popped down at Grand Place to celebrate the Red devils’ performance. Although they were defeated by France in the semi-finals, they showcased a very attractive football play during the whole competition by coming third and showed that the ‘Golden generation’ is scared of no one. It is now up to them to confirm their level in two years, for the UEFA Euro Cup.

What about the favourite teams?

The 2018 World Cup has been a very special one. The most successful teams in the history of football (Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Italy of course) have indeed failed. For the first time in the history of the World Cups, no country among Brazil, Argentina and Germany participated in the semi-finals.

The outsiders progressed rather well, as Belgium and England were only eliminated in the semi-finals and Croatia qualified for the final game.

And the top-players?

Have you had a look at the “Ballon d’Or” ranking 2017? Cristiano Ronaldo (1^st), Lionel Messi (2^nd) and Neymar (3^rd) were supposed to lead their national teams to the last games. But they all failed.

Portugal was defeated by Uruguay in the Round of 16, as well as Argentina (vs. France). While everyone expected so much from Neymar, his credibility was sullied due to all the dives he did during the cup.

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12:30, the players go to Laken Castle, where King Filip will receive them. Around 14:00, they’ll get onto an open party bus and brought to the Grand Place. They will take places on the city hall’s grand balcony around 15:00, just like the generation of Mexico 1986, which took an unprecedented 4th place at the World Cup, except this team are present as third place winners.

Only 9,000 people will be allowed on the square, but two big screens will be installed nearby for all to follow festivities. One of is placed at the Beurs. The players leave the Grand Place around 16:30 and all activities cease at 17:00. Police ask attendees not to bring bags or items in glass.

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Sochi, where everything started

Mission accomplished: Belgium 3 – 0 Panama

Step 2: Belgium vs. Tunisia

Amazing result!
Belgium 5 – 2 Tunisia and Lukaku was the man of the game

Team spirit

A group full of confidence

Next stop: Kaliningrad

Belgium 1 – 0 England: we won the group!

Recovering from the celebrations

Belgium going mad

Incredible game!
Belgium was losing 2-0 and comes back with 3 amazing goals

Quarter-finals here we come!

Press conference before the big game against Brazil.
Mission Impossible?

We made history! Belgium 2 – 1 Brazil

We are Belgium

The end of a dream against France but the group remains united

Déjà vu? Playing the 3rd place against England

FIFA World Cup 2018 3rd place goes to Belgium

Our boys are at home

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The Three Lions quickly found their way through the net after just four minutes of play. The referee gave a free kick for a foul by Luka Modric on Delle Alli after 4 minutes. Kieran Trippier sent the ball right into Danijel Subasic’s skylight to give the lead to his team with the 9th goal from a dead ball since the start of the tournament, the 12th overall (a record).

The Croatians were more accurate in the second half. Ivan Perisic went from a heavy shot long distance to the 58th, saved by Kyle Walker. But this was just a warning shot from former Brugge player, who equalized in the 68th minute.

The score did not move change and so the match headed for extra time. This is the third time that the Croatians have went to overtime, after their knockout stage against Denmark and their quarter against Russia, the equivalent of an extra match in the legs. Mario Mandzukic, in the 109th put one away and saw Croatia through to a historical win that puts them in the final

Croatia will play Sunday the very first final of its young history. The Croats had finished 3rd in their first World Cup and were eliminated by France, which they meet this sunday in the final twenty years later. France will play its third World Cup final, with them winning in 1998 against Brazil and losing in 2006 against Italy.

World champion in 1966, England had not reached the last stage of the World since 1990. They were then knocked out from penalties by West Germany. The English will find the Red Devils Saturday in the match for 3rd place. The two teams met on the third game of the group stage, when they were both qualified for the round of 16. Adnan Januzaj’s only goal of the match (1-0) placed Belgium in 1st place in Group G.

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If you heard some noise in the Brussels streets yesterday night, you can’t blame the Belgians. Some nationals probably kept on drinking a couple of beers after the game vs. France, but the French expats were surely the noisiest people. They indeed had reason to party, after they defeated the Red devils (1-0) on a corner kick and secured themselves a place in the World Cup final.

The Red devils are sure to be frustrated for weeks and weeks. Most of the supporters were quite optimistic after the first half, as the Belgians clearly seemed to control the game. But the French tactic, which is based on defence and counterattacks, was the most efficient one yesterday. And the Mbappé’s and his teammates made sure to end the Belgian dream.

“The coolest country”. We surely can have regrets with regard to the competition, as the Red devils probably had the best attack and scorers of the tournament. When you’ve had a look at the Belgian way of playing, it was worth wondering could they have went on to final victory.

But you also can have a look at the other side of the coin. Although Belgium was one of the best outsiders of the 2018 World Cup, they were not part of the most impressive favourite teams. While most of the Red devils play for the best European teams, many people did not know anything about Belgian football.

And after that World Cup, it seems the views on Belgium will be different. “For some weeks, Belgium has become the coolest country of the football planet”, La Libre Belgique wrote on Wednesday.

Unifying Belgium. The Red devils have also achieved an important thing. For a couple of weeks, they have unified the whole Belgium. The rivalry between the Flemish and the Walloon community did not matter when the national team was playing. Everyone supported the Red devils, and those who are not interested in football were very happy about partying after the games vs. Japan and Brazil.

You might like or dislike football. There is, however, no way denying the potential impacts it can have in society. So, despite the defeat yesterday, Thank you, Belgium, for giving it a great go, and it’s not over yet, they will still be in the playoffs to win third place – come on Belgium!

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« I have confidence, and I am convinced that we can win, » continued the Prime Minister, according to which « Belgium is gathered behind a cause that puts aside all our differences and leaves the community issues in the fridge. »

« Abroad, we often have a more positive image of Belgium than we have of ourselves, here in the country. Our assets are recognized. We must take advantage of it, » added Charles Michel, for whom the country will be « the center of the world this week, » additionally because of the NATO summit scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels. For this, « the police are mobilized and everything is done to keep the situation under control, » said the Prime Minister.

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Here we are, finally! Although both Belgium and France have been being very significant teams over the past few months, they were quite unlikely to play each others in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup. But an incredible victory vs. Brazil on the one hand, and a serious game vs. Uruguay on the other hand, have finally given the Belgians the opportunity to compete with their best enemy: France.

There is no reason to go on about the common history, as well as the sort of rivalry the two countries have. Although the game is firstly about football, it will surely be another deal in Brussels. As a quick reminder, the French expat community is the largest one in the Belgian capital. At the same time, dozens of thousands of Belgians also live in France. This particular game will therefore be of major importance to many of us.

Let’s come back to football. There is no accurate way of making predictions for this game. Both teams indeed have a very good background, very effective scorers and midfielders, but both have had some defensive issues since the beginning of the competition. The goalkeepers: Courtois, on the one hand, and Lloris on the other hand, have also been being very good since the World Cup has started. So, it is quite unlikely to be an unbalanced game.

Some facts, however, could be interesting. First of all, Thomas Meunier, a major Belgian player, will be suspended as he got two yellow cards during the competition. Secondly, Thierry Henry, one of the deputy Belgian coaches, knows France very well as he used to be a very important player. Finally, in the history of the World Cups, when Belgium and France played each other, Belgium has never won and France has won twice.

No need for statistics today. Please have fun on Tuesday night, and remember that the winner of the game can win the World Cup on Sunday.

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In Auderghem, users will come down to the stop « En DEMEY Finale » while they will take the train to « MERODE duivels » in Etterbeek.

To console Brazil, the Stib broadcasted yesterday Brazilian music in all the stations. Last Tuesday, the Stib renamed the stations « Belgica » and « Hankar » into « BelgicAmpioen » and « Hankar final » following the victory of Belgium against Japan in the round of 16.

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