Euro 2016: Hungary 0-4 Belgium - 5 talking points
Belgium will face Wales in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 after a world-class Eden Hazard performance inspired them to a 4-0 victory over Hungary. Marc Wilmots’ side took the lead after just 9 minutes when a Kevin De Bruyne free-kick was turned in by Toby Alderweireld amidst some ordinary Hungarian marking.
They doubled their lead in the 78th minute as substitute Michy Batshuayi tapped in from 6 yards from a quality low cross by Hazard. The latter then wowed the spectators two minutes later, as he cut inside beautifully from the left with his fleet-footedness that fans had been craving to watch for a majority of the season. He promptly found the space at the edge of the Hungarian penalty area to get a shot away and beat Hungarian keeper Kiraly at the low corner.
Substitute Yannick Carrasco applied the gloss to a magnificent team effort as he latched on to Radja Nainggolan’s pass and finished the move off with an accurate strike inside the near post.
Here are some of the talking points of an exciting, yet one-sided game:-
1) A breathless first half
Till this game had kicked off, it had been a relatively soporific Round of 16 over the past couple of days. Games were either boring or were one-sided. The tournament needed this sort of tie to make fans take notice and convince them that these were two teams going for the win rather than ensuring they would not lose. Both sides were adventurous and created many meaningful goal-scoring opportunities.
Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard were the chance-creators for Belgium, while Hungary relied on skipper Balazs Dzsudzsak, Gergo Lovrencsics and Adam Szalai to pour forward and put the Belgian defence under pressure. It was 45 minutes worth staying up late into the night and witnessing a battle of equals.