At the final whistle, the pocket of French supporters behind the goal to the far left, with their tricolours and memories of 1998, could celebrate another triumphant night for their team. France had made it to the final, courtesy of Samuel Umtiti’s second-half winner, and a Belgium side featuring 10 players from the Premier League will be left to contemplate that maybe the time will never come for their golden generation.
They will go with a lot of people’s good wishes bearing in mind Roberto Martínez’s side knocked out Brazil to reach the semi-final and have contributed so richly to what is widely being acclaimed as the most attractive World Cup in memory. Here, though, they could not build on an encouraging start and came up against a France side with a superior blend, perhaps, when it comes to finding the right balance between attack and defence.
Written by Daniel Taylor at the St Petersburg Stadium
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/10/france-belgium-world-cup-semi-final-match-report under the title “Samuel Umtiti header puts France in World Cup final with win over Belgium”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
