World Cup 2018: the end of a dream

The Belgian adventure in the 2018 World Cup has been stopped by the French team yesterday night.

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!