Brazil did the samba and Belgium did the quickstep.
And the attractive swaying was no match for the speedy attacking steps of the Red Devils.
The’ ball’room judges held up the final score: Belgium 2 Brazil 1. There was little in it, in terms of the chances they created: in fact, Brazil had far more shots.
The difference was in the directness of the Belgian attacks, no messing around and great vision of where the spaces were.
Belgium won it in the first half after a master stroke of setting up the team by Roberto Martinez, putting Kevin de Bruyne up front with Romelo Lukaku to feed him, not the other way round.
Belgium simply found spaces all over the place and clobbered Brazil on the break, time after time.
Spain learned it wasn’t about the number of passes; Brazil learned it’s not about the number of shots.
It would take reams to describe the game’s many moves, chances, shots and misses – primarily from Brazil but also plenty from Belgium.
In the final analysis it was not about Neymar, or Hazard, or Lukaku or Coutinho; it was about Thibaut Courtois in the Belgian goals.
The Chelsea keeper pulled off more than a dozen point black saves.
He was beaten once, midway through the second half when Philippe Coutinho’s cute chip over the back line of defenders was perfectly headed home by substitute Renato Augusto, who had barely been on the field for a minute.
But by then the reds were already two goals up and deservedly so. They had exploited a bewildered Brazilian defence through their speedy counters.
As early as the 12th minute they were on the board when a deflection of Marouane Fellaini’s shot led to a corner which was flicked on by Vincent Kompany and onto two defenders before settling into the net.
They would double their tally in the 30th minute when Lukaku’s superb run – and he had many of them during the night – ended at De Bruyne’s feet and he thundered one home from the edge of the box: unstoppable, hard and low and beyond the reach of Alisson.
The final, fatal 15 minutes were marked by two excellent football demonstrations. The first was the attacking prowess of the Brazilians, who set up chance after chance – but all to no avail.
The second was the way Belgium ran the clock down. They were in danger, but the ‘Hazard’ lights were on and he and De Bruyne held onto the ball like a Scotsman on a ten pound note.
They had done enough, only just, but it got them through and they will meet France in the semis.
As for me, it’s two out of two correct predictions on the night.
