Euro 2024 – Ukraine vs Belgium: Red Devils face rivals France after stalemate with Ukraine

 

To Kevin De Bruyne’s credit, Domenico Tedesco’s Belgium produced one memorable moment but lacked a cutting edge. De Bruyne played Romelu Lukaku with a deft pass, but goalie Anatoliy Trubin stopped his shot because he was unable to make proper touch.

Georgiy Sudakov’s long shot straight at custodian Koen Casteels and Roman Yaremchuk’s strange attempt to pass across goal when he appeared to be in a better position to shoot were examples of Ukraine’s greater threat.

Although they controlled the game better in the second half, Belgium faltered in the last ten minutes. Ruslan Malinovskyi, of Ukraine, nearly fooled Casteels with a corner kick, blasting it towards the near post, which the custodian parried away on the goalline.

After a powerful run, Sudakov had a late chance to win it and send Belgium home, but he fired straight at Casteels.

Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco on facing France:

“We go to win. We will face a top team and this is the reason why we qualified – otherwise we could have stayed at home.

“These are the games we are looking for, we can challenge everybody. I think we are ready, we are really ready.”

Ukraine manager Serhiy Rebrov said:

“We showed the character of our people. We need the support of Europe and we are part of Europe. It is very important for us to be represented here.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do well. This is like in life, you make some mistakes and then it’s very important how you react. I think we reacted well.

“We are very proud of the players. Everyone in Ukraine is unhappy with the score but there are no question marks for the players.

“It’s very important to show that we are still alive, we are still fighting and we will not stop.”

Group E results