Thibaut Courtois has lashed out at France and their tactics after his country, Belgium’s defeat to the former world champions in the first semifinal played yesterday.
Courtois called them an ‘anti-football’ team which was in relation to France’s defensive tactics for the game.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “It’s just an anti-football team,”
“Their striker plays 30 metres from his own goal.”
Courtois also took the time to praise Brazil who were a lot more enterprising and forced the Chelsea goalkeeper into a number of saves.
“France heads a corner and does nothing more than defend,” he said.
“I would have preferred to have lost in the quarter-finals to Brazil, at least that was a team that wanted to play football.”
Belgium did most of the pressing with France restricted to counter attacks and set-pieces and it from one of these that they scored, Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti heading in a corner kick in the second half.
After this, France sat deep, getting men behind the ball and leaving Olivier Giroud as a lone man up front.
Courtois, however still made some important saves including shots from Giroud, Mbappe and Tolisso as France looked to make the game safe.
Belgium, who are the tournament’s top scorers will now have to settle for a third-place match which will be between the second semifinalists namely; Croatia and England who play today for a chance to fill in the second slot for the final which will be played in Moscow.
🙁 No final it is 😢
That's #Football. We did our best. ⚽️
The support in 🇧🇪 & all over the world was once again amazing !
👏 Félicitations @equipedefrance et bonne chance pour la finale ! 👍
We go for 🥉 now ! 💪
👊🏽 @Fanclub1895 #REDTOGETHER#WorldCup#FRABEL pic.twitter.com/OnLhIg0zoP
— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) July 10, 2018
The Belgian national team’s Twitter account congratulated France on their win while also applauding the team for what has been an excellent World Cup.
The account posted: 🙁 No final it is 😢
That’s #Football. We did our best. ⚽️
The support in 🇧🇪 & all over the world was once again amazing !
👏 Félicitations @equipedefrance et bonne chance pour la finale ! 👍
We go for 🥉 now ! 💪
👊🏽 @Fanclub1895
#REDTOGETHER
#WorldCup
#FRABEL