France Stalled, Belgium Advanced Into World Cup 2018

France Stalled, Belgium Advanced Into World Cup 2018

France’s ambition to immediately secured that 2018 World Cup ticket in Russia got stalled again as Didier Deschamps’ men surprisingly held by lowly Luxembourg side on Sunday.

Coming off a sensational 4-0 victory over Netherlands, Les Blues’ confidence was supposedly on a high as they were targeting another three points.

However, Deschamps’ boys were unable to convert their opportunities, resulting in a very frustrating match, in which they could even lose late on as Luxembourg actually got a legit goal scoring opportunity when Gerson Rodrigues saw his shot hitting the upright.

Certainly a disappointing result for France, notably since their point gap with second place Sweden, got reduced again into only one, triggering a very tense last few games in their qualifier group.

In contrast to Les Blues, Belgium earned themselves that automatic ticket to Russia 2018 following a slender win over Greece.

After a rather dull first 45 minutes which ended goalless, the game suddenly sparked to live after the break as Roberto Martinez’s men got themselves in front through Jan Vertonghen’s effort.

That lead only lasted for three minutes as the home team drew level with a goal from Zeca, but within just a minute after that equalizer, Red Devils secured all three points as Romelu Lukaku scored the winner with his header.

In other important tie, Portugal grabbed a 1-0 win over Hungary thanks to their young star striker, Andre Silva, who headed home Cristiano Ronaldo’s assist early in the second half.

That win means that European Selecao still have a shot at automatic qualification as they’re just three points behind group leader, Switzerland which won 3-0 against Latvia on the same day.

Source: 1000 Goals.