- Football is a,
is a journey of 90 minutes or even longer at times.
That, the ball switches momentum very quickly
and there is always, always an opportunity
to win a football game.
The happiest moment is the first goal against Panama,
cause there really is a moment
that there's not a lot of attention,
it’s your first goal in the World Cup,
and at that moment we knew where we were.
- [Announcer] Dries Mertens puts Belgium in front!
Belgium could not have planned a better beginning.
The volley was sheer perfection.
- The defeat starts in your feeling,
when you feel that you’ve lost the game then really you,
lost the game, it's probably,
it gives you the opportunity to be right
whatever you feel.
You feel that you can win,
you're gonna be at two-nil down with 15 minutes to go
and I think that's what the final result in football starts
and how you feel about it.
But I think that game against Japan
was special for many reasons.
There are moments in a World Cup
that you're gonna be tested as an individual
and if you're playing for yourself
you'd never be able to help your team.
You need to be able to understand that your role
is to contribute and be ready to contribute.
I think that was the proudest moment that we had
for many reasons.
Two subs that they’re coming on with a mentality of
that they are ready to help the team,
and they both they score.
Something that has never happened
in a World Cup before that.
Two subs managed to score a goal,
and that's probably the most satisfying example as a coach,
when you look back at all those times
that everyone contributed as a squad
and everyone allowed Belgium to qualify
and get into the quarterfinals.
When you're facing Brazil.
I think you’ve got a psychological barrier
that you have to overtake.
Brazil are psychologically stronger
than any other team in the tournament
because of the amount of World Cups that they've won.
They've got the individual quality of players
that they can win a game in one instant.
And that's why we needed, we needed a tactical advantage.
We needed to find a way of playing that it could give us
an opportunity to not allow Brazil to be themselves.
You got maybe two sessions to prepare
a game of that magnitude.
So I think watching the game, I think the first half
was the perfect tactical display.
Everything that we tried to achieve,
it was executed in a manner that is down
to the players’ concentration and the players’ belief
and the players’ almost intuition,
how to take that role in the game.
But a way that is suited our players,
is suited to make a dynamic game with our opportunity.
We are a team that we can be clinical in those six seconds,
10 seconds attacks that we can have in transition.
And try to force Brazil to do things
that they are not probably used to.
Romelu Lukaku being left footed
and having his power and pace and ball control that he has,
to put him in a wide position
to try to get in goal-scoring positions
from those starting roles was essential.
I think Kevin De Bruyne with that opportunity
of applying good pressure on the start of play of Brazil
where they always find a very good opportunity to find
their key players like Neymar and Coutinho and Willian
in one-v-one situations was essential.
Kevin De Bruyne was for me
the most impressive midfielder in the World Cup.
Someone that he can apply the right tempo in the game,
sometimes he can accelerate the pace of the game.
Someone that he can finish in the 18-yard box
and sometimes he can start the play
in front of your 18-yard box.
He's a complete midfielder.
It was the perfect performance
in the first 45 minutes
down to trying to use our players in what suits us as a team
rather than thinking that we were playing Brazil.
- [Announcer] So here it is, the first semifinal
of the 2018 World Cup.
- Arriving to the game against France
there's a real positive feeling in our group,
because it's not a normal situation.
You're arriving to the semifinals of a World Cup,
which is a real achievement.
We knew how the nation were supporting us
and how they were believing in the team.
And then we're facing a team that a lot of our players
share dressing room with in the club level.
France has got the individual
quality of being able
to defend really, really well and deep.
They can press you really high up
and make it a dynamic game.
They can control the game, they can break it up.
I just felt that we went into the game
with a feeling that we were missing a player
like Thomas Meunier who was very influential for us
and that forced us to change a winning,
team that we had against Brazil.
Probably of it all looking after the game,
the experience that France had of losing
the final against Portugal in the Euros 2016,
gave them that extra
sense of opportunity
of affecting those key moments in the boxes,
but
we gave everything we had
in a very, very difficult game.
And the saddest moment has to be
just missing out on the final.
I know that when you start a tournament,
everything, becoming the team with the best position
in the history of Belgium in the World Cup
and finishing with a bronze medal is a reason to,
not to have a sad moment in the tournament.
The group was ready to go all the way
and try to win the tournament,
so the moment you are stopped from that
it has to become the saddest moment of the tournament.
- We told the world that
we are Belgium!