Red Devils’ coach Tedesco curses luck after tame exit
DOMENICO TEDESCO was left ruing Belgium’s luck yesterday after Jan Vertonghen’s late own goal ended their Euro 2024 campaign and sent France into the quarterfinals.
Vertonghen diverted Randal Kolo Muani’s mishit attempt into his own net with five minutes remaining in Duesseldorf as talent-packed Belgium again disappointed in a major international tournament.
“One hour after the final whistle and after conceding a goal in minute 86 it’s very difficult to go into analysis for me,” Tedesco told reporters.
“You can’t really say that we were lucky this tournament if you see the first games and the kind of goal we conceded tonight.”
Belgium were largely on the back foot against France, who wasted a series of good opportunities before good fortune swung their way late on.
And the manner of both Belgium’s display yesterday and their qualification from Group E, after which they were pelted with boos and whistles from fans due to their goalless draw with Ukraine, led to the Red Devils’ courage being questioned.
Tedesco refuted accusations that his team lacked bravery after an unfortunate – if largely deserved – elimination from the Euros.
“I think (against) Slovakia yes (we were brave). You saw Slovakia against England, we pressed them high and we had many chances, the same against Romania as well,” said Tedesco.
“The (goalless draw with) Ukraine, yes, the longer these kinds of games are going you have inside the heads of the players that you concede one goal and you are out of the tournament. And tonight we played against France and the chances were also there tonight.”
Tedesco also defended Romelu Lukaku who
Othere. That could be said about France’s winning goal and the very 1-0 last-16 win over Belgium it decided.
After 85 minutes of what had perhaps been the worst football in this tournament – outside, maybe, some of England’s games – substitute Randal Kolo Muani tried a speculative shot that was mishit off the ground and deflected off the unfortunate Jan Vertonghen and in.
The game maybe deserved that, but it’s arguable whether France did. An otherwise sensationally talented squad made their way into the quarterfinals by dour obduracy rather than any creativity or class.
It may yet take them to ultimate victory, of course, but it doesn’t make much of it memorable. The most stirring moment of the game was a tackle by Theo Hernandez on Yannick Carrasco.
The best you could say was the goal – at least preceded by a clever angled pass from Antoine Griezmann. That’s it.
That’s all France had in their team by way of playmaking. Kylian Mbappe was crowded out, everyone still waiting for his moment.
It felt like everyone was going to wait for a goal here. Instead, France got their third of the tournament, but not one has been a clean effort into the net from open play.
That wasn’t all the fault of Deschamps on this occasion. Belgium’s Italian-German manager leaves Germany with no goals to his name, although the striker had three goals chalked off by VAR decisions in the group stage.
The last, in Belgium’s 2-0 victory over group winners Romania, was ruled out after Lukaku’s big toe was shown to be offside.
“If you think Romelu (Lukaku) will go home with zero goals after these kind of games, and also Jeremy Doku with zero goals and zero assists, for me it’s a pity, it’s unbelievable,” said Tedesco.
“We have a big trust in Romelu, he showed in several moments that he’s the one who can really take the team to another level, that he can score. He’s always there and dangerous for the opponents.
“He’s had a tough tournament. Normally he’s probably leading scorer after the group stage but you leave this game with zero goals, so it’s not easy.” – AFP