Berlin, Oct. 8 (BUS): Belgium dumped much of its hard work over the past five years in its Nations League defeat by France, said a frustrated Roberto Martinez.
First-half goals by Yannick Carrasco and Romelu Lukaku seem to have put Belgium on course to face Spain in Sunday’s final, but Les Bleu is struggling to win 3-2, according to German news agency DPA.
Theo Hernandez scored the winning goal in the last minute of normal time, just moments after Lukaku believed he had restored Belgium’s lead following Karim Benzema’s goal and a Kylian Mbappe penalty.
But VAR came to the aid of France with an offside claim, as it won its first match after falling two or more goals in the first half since May 2012 against Iceland in a friendly match.
Belgium will return to Turin to face European champions Italy in the match for third place this weekend. Martinez, who led the Red Devils to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals (where they lost to France) and the quarter-finals at Euro 2020, said his team had only themselves to blame.
“We are very disappointed that we were not able to maintain the lead,” he said in media assignments after the match. “We didn’t have enough control in the second half. We allowed France to get back into the game.
“When you play against someone like France, they punish all mistakes. We got France into the game at a time when it shouldn’t happen again.
“This is a competition in which we have had to show our experience and all our hard work over the past five years. The disappointment is huge because the hard work and all the effort put in by the team has been thrown away.”
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