Les Bleus Thrive

The first half of the 2018 World Cup semi-final line-up is set, as neighbours France and Belgium prepare to square off for the chance to play in football’s biggest game.

They both fought extremely hard to get to this point over the course of the last few years, but when it comes to their actual quarter-final encounters, they had varying degrees of ‘struggle’ so to speak. Les Bleus seemed extremely confident from the very first whistle against Uruguay, pinning them back and not allowing Luis Suarez to get any kind of rhythm going. While it certainly helped that Edinson Cavani wasn’t available, the French still put on a masterclass in how to see out a result with Raphael Varane kicking things off five minutes before half-time with a delightful header.

Uruguay tried to fight their way back into the tie but couldn’t find a way through Hugo Lloris, and then in the blink of an eye, the South Americans’ hopes faded before their very eyes as Fernando Muslera spilt Antoine Griezmann’s effort into the net to secure the result. The French didn’t even really need to get out of first gear to pick up the win, but the same can’t be said for the Red Devils.

Belgium Power Through

With Belgium, it’s always been a case of ‘what if’. Their golden generation have failed to live up to expectations in the past but now, finally, they’ve been able to progress to the final four of a major international tournament after defeating Brazil 2-1 last night. The five-time world champions have looked out of sorts at various points during their time in Russia, and they finally came undone against an organised and resolute Belgium side.

Fernandinho’s early own goal set the tone after Vincent Kompany’s fantastic near post run, putting the Brazilians on the back foot from that point on. They slowly began to wear Belgium down but the counter-attack was always going to pose a problem, and just after the half-hour mark the underdogs made the favourites pay once again as Romelu Lukaku slipped a lovely ball through to Kevin De Bruyne, and the City star made no mistake in doubling their advantage. Renato Augusto set up a grandstand finish, but Brazil were unable to find that crucial second goal that would’ve taken the game into extra time.

All eyes will now turn to Tuesday night when these two square off, and given how much is on the line, don’t be surprised to see this one go beyond the allotted 90 minutes.

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