A perfectly executed smash and grab from Belgium sees them through to the semi-finals
After a thriller in Rostov, Belgium reached the Quarter-finals to face a Brazilian side whose performances were getting better as the tournament proceeds. Casemiro and Danilo were Tite’s only absentees, while Roberto Martinez had a full house to pick from.
Belgium’s 3–4–3 was halted as Martinez decided to go with a peculiar 4–3–3, with Lukaku on the right side of attack, benching Mertens as Fellaini and Chadli flanked Witsel in midfield. Brazil continued with their normal setup, depending heavily on their creative left side, with a tendency to isolate the opponent left back for Willian or Douglas Costa to gain superiority, Belgium’s mission was how to nullify the above, while finding holes in the Brazilian defence. On the left hand side, Chadli and Vertonghen paired up to stop Willian’s threat, leaving him in a 2 v 1 situation as Fagner rarely advances to keep balance in the defensive line, a balance needed to stable the tilt resulting from Marcelo’s play making ability on Brazil’s left side.
As Marcelo progressed, the space forged behind him was invaded by Belgian’s main counter attacking threat Romelu Lukaku, against an ageing Joao Miranda, Lukaku had the pace, power and skill to cause problems. On the defensive front, Meunier, Fellaini, Alderweirled and Witsel were compact enough to prevent any danger from Brazil’s left side, leaving them in a 4 v 3 situation. Neymar and Coutinho’s attempts to cut inside to gain an advantage from Alderweireld positioning, was strongly intercepted by the bash brothers, Fellaini and Witsel.
When in possession, De Bruyne dropped into the left channel to offer a passing option, keeping in mind that he’s the main man for ball progression in this team. Chadli and Meunier advanced through the wings, so that Belgium were in a sort of 3–5–2 shape in possession. However, their main weapon was counter attacks, where Lukaku’s positioning behind Marcelo, Hazard’s trickery and his ability to keep the ball— an important aspect of defensive setups later in the game, as this releases the pressure, and gives time for the defense to push forward — accompanied with De Bruyne’s vision and passing ability, struck fear into the Brazilian defence. Belgium managed to get the lead form a corner which came as a result of Fellaini’s movement into the space vacated by Lukaku, who dropped to the left side to provide a passing outlet for Chadli and De Bruyne, the second goal was a counter attack through which Lukaku annihilated the Brazilian defence with his run, only then to pass it to De Bruyne who slammed it into the net
At half time, Tite switched into a 4–4–1–1 with Neymar behind Firmino who replaced Willian, while Gabriel Jesus turned to the right side of midfield. This provided Brazil with 3 offensive stations rather than 2, left wing (Marcelo), center (Neymar), and right wing (Jesus), thus moving the Belgium defence horizontally in a more stop-start movement, and as the game went on the Belgium defence were out of legs, and better opportunities were created by the Brazilian side, whose finishing disappointed them a couple of times, but managed to get back in the game after a beautiful chip from Coutinho on Renato Augusto’s head. Martinez decided to revert back to 5–3–2 as Vermaelen replaced injured Chadli who ran out of legs, a switch that could have been handy a few minutes earlier as the tiredness was visible on the Belgium defence. Also, to offer further protection against the electric Douglas Costa, Martinez introduced Youri Tielemans, so that he could take De Bruyne’s position on the left side of midfield.
2–1 for Belgium, the final whistle has been blown. Robert Martinez tactics were spot on, nullifying Brazil’s main strength while attacking the space vacated by one of their most important players, in addition to an incredible performance from each and every Belgian player, but a huge credit goes to Thibaut Courtois who made save after save, some seemed easy due to his anticipation, perfect positioning and footwork, and for the Belgians to reach their first ever final, they would need to recreate a similar performance against France in Saint Petersburg.
