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Rising, in the rankings
Beating the Faroe Islands, is something everybody expects from a team like Belgium. But, watching your country play as poorly as we did, was not something I enjoyed. We may have won the game, but if we are to make others fear us, we have to at least put a half decent performance in against Faroe. They shouldn't be getting those chances to score, or those chances to play the football, they want to play... not against my team!
The game, ended 3-0. Some may say it was a good performance, and they'd be wrong. Eden Hazard got the game going with a goal from all of 6 yards out, the ball was initially going wide but a defender, from out of no where dived in to try and block the shot however he ended up deflecting the ball into his own net, he'd have been better off not doing a thing.
This next goal was probably the only goal that was fair and deserved. Faroe defender Karl Ellingsgaard brought down Axel Witsel in the box, and a penalty was given by the ref. He probably should have been given a red card as Axel was through on goal ready to shoot, however, that shouldn't bother me, it is only a friendly. Anyway, in the 40th minute, Witsel stepped up and planted the ball right in the centre of the goal. It was one of the only things that made me smile in this game, the passion on Witsel's face when he celebrated was immense. I thought to myself...it's only a friendly, what's the fuss? but no. It was much more than that, he had scored for his country and in any game that is bound to make you rejoice.
The last goal of the game came from another penalty in the 90th minute, through Jan Vertonghen. The penalty was undeserved, Hazard should be ashamed. Attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne held the ball on the edge of the box, he was just toying with the Faroe defence playing the ball about in all sorts of directions. He received a well worked pass from hazard on the left wing. As he received the pass, Kevin didn't even need to look, he just chipped the ball passed two defenders and right to the feet of Hazard, however Hazard had no intention of shooting. Faroe defender Selfoss chased the ball down like a lion, he just managed to clip the ball but caught Hazard as well, so we thought. The ball went off the pitch and Eden went down like a sack of spuds, he was in agony or was he? After the game, I watched the replay, and Selfoss hadn't even touched Hazard, it was pathetic decision, to dive in such a manner and I will be having words with him. It was Jan Vertonghen that would be going for goal this time, he looked pretty confident in his run up and it showed as he placed the ball in the bottom right corner to round off the game.
It might sound like I am exaggerating, but no. Against a team like the Faroe Islands, we should be winning a lot more comfortably. The only players worth a mention, Is Kevin De Bruyne and Witsel. After handing Witsel vice captaincy he has shown signs of big improvement in training and in previous games, I hope he does this well for Zenit. Kevin De Bruyne, isn't one of my regulars but he may have proved himself to me, lately he has been great, him and Witsel pulled all of the strings in the last game and I hope they will continue to do so, maybe this is the beginning of a new partnership.
We also moved up one place in the World rankings...up to 9th, maybe past games in the qualifiers are the reason why we have been moving up a lot, I just hope this decision wasn't based on the last game, as we may have played badly but beating the Faroe Islands isn't exactly something special. I will tell the lads the performance wasn't good enough, it might have been good enough to beat The Faroe Islands but what if we come up against Spain or Brazil in future games? We must perform, this may only have been a friendly but I expect a certain amount of commitment and I only managed to get that from De Bruyne and Witsel. It just isn't good enough I'm afraid.
