“I spoke to the staff of the Canadian national team. They convinced me that they had no intention of defending themselves. They wanted to press and attack the Belgians” – at the start transmission in DVT said Janusz Michalik commenting on the match. Although the Canadians have no shortage of good footballers, it was hard to expect Wednesday’s final World Cup match to take such a course.
John Herdman’s side could have scored objective already in the 11th minute. She could have, but the penalty was missed by Alphonso Davies. Star Bayern Munich he wanted to hit his left corner, but he did it too lightly, and the ball passed too close to the center of the goal, which allowed Thibaut Courtois to deflect it calmly.
It was just the start of Canada’s dominance before the break. Herdman’s team, as announced, was not afraid of the Belgians and took the game to the Ahmad bin Ali stadium. The Canadians occasionally threatened Courtois’ goal, but either hit the mark or were blocked at the crucial moment.
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The Canadians were unlucky either. In the first half, the VAR referee and referees made two controversial decisions, failing to dictate the next two penalties for Canada. In the first situation, there was an obvious foul in the Belgian penalty area, but the referees had previously called for offside. The problem is that he wasn’t there, because the last player who touched the ball was Belgian – Eden Hazard.
A few minutes later, VAR considered another situation in the Belgian penalty area. This time, the Canadian was clearly trampled by Axel Witsel, but this time the judges did not change the main referee’s original decision.
Both decisions sparked much controversy. Either way, it looks like the Canadians were simply robbed of penalties. In both cases, there was a clear violation of the rules, to which the African referees reacted badly.
Belgium beat Canada
Although the Canadians clearly had the upper hand, they conceded a goal in the 44th minute. Toby Alderweireld showed a long, brilliant pass. The ball was received by Michy Batshuayi, who, after entering the penalty area, beat Milan Borjan with a powerful shot.
After the break, the picture of the match did not change. The Canadians dominated, created more scoring chances, but couldn’t find a way to beat Courtois. Belgians? They couldn’t find their rhythm the whole game and they should be grateful The goalkeeperthat they have three points after the first meeting of the World Cup.
The flow of the match is best reflected by his stats. The Canadians fired a total of 21 shots, only three of which were on target. The Belgians, despite only having seven shots, had the same number of accurate attempts. Despite such an advantage, Canada scored neither the first point nor the first goal in World Cup history.
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Canada’s first and last World Cup appearance was in 1986. After losses to France (0-1), Hungary (0-2) and the USSR (0-2), the team returned home after the group stage. To prevent this situation from happening again, Canada will not be allowed to lose in the second game of the tournament. On Sunday, Canada will face Croatia (5:00 p.m.) and Belgium will face Morocco (2:00 p.m.).
