For more than 75 minutes, Belgium believed it was touching the end of a curse dating back more than forty years in official competition. Buoyed by a goal from Dodi Lukebakio and a 40-meter caviar from Roméo Lavia, the Belgian selection displayed remarkable confidence on the pitch at the Stade de France. Faced with the Blues for a long time without a solution, the Red Devils thought they had a founding success. This Tuesday morning, the media did not fail to salute this first heroic period where, “for 75 minutes, the Belgian defense looked like the Eiffel Tower: solid, proud, looking down on Paris from all its height“. Finally, everything went wrong.
Belgium bows to French power
In the space of just fourteen minutes, the dream turned into an absolute nightmare under the leadership of the French substitutes. The entry into play of Désiré Doué, Rayan Cherki and Michael Olise swept away the opposing defense in the blink of an eye, plunging Belgium into a new defeat against its French neighbor (4-1). Obviously, it’s the soup of grimaces among the Belgian press. As noted RTBFthe Belgians were purely and simply “swept away by a tornado“, “undergoing a real French offensive arising from all sides: from the right, from the left, in the axis…”. While the balance of power between the two teams seemed balanced a few years ago, the Belgian press is lowering its weapons in the face of the French who now seem far superior.
Faced with this apocalyptic end to the match, the comments oscillate between astonishment and irony. The Last Hour wonders about this “black hole» inexplicable, recalling that“at the highest level, the difference between a good performance and a great performance sometimes comes down to two accelerations, enough to ruin a match and the hopes of 11 million Belgians”. For his part, The evening ironically about this “tradition of good Belgian jokes at the Stade de France told in the space of 77 minutes, before the French take back the spittoon and tell the end of the story in their own way”.
France remains the bane of Belgium
As for the Flemish press, HLN draws up an equally scathing assessment of a meeting where “the Belgian house of cards has completely collapsed“. The media summarizes the frustration accumulated over the years with a bitter observation: “time and time again, France has given the Red Devils hope. False hopes, unfortunately.» The media also suggests that Mark Van Bommel rewatch the last quarter of an hour several times in order to understand what made the Red Devils break down so much. Nieuwsblad wants to be more nuanced and affirms that Belgium was crushed by “the French steamroller“.
For its part, La Libre regrets that France continues to “to set oneself up as the bête noire of Belgium”. Beyond the pain of such a correction (4-1), the newspapers bow to the depth and quality of the tricolor reservoir. If RTL.be remember above all “a huge slap“, the entire press recognizes the difference in talent which separates the two nations in the “complete breakdown of the Devils against the Blues on fire“. Faced with the display of mastery and talent of the French attackers, we can close with these words of HLN which perfectly illustrate the mentality of the Belgians towards France: “what a joy it must be to have so much talent.»
