That fkn Craig is the worst. Morocco knocked up 3 of the best European teams. Yet he and the other fools don't even attempt to give the due respect. Belgium got outplayed by Morocco. Simple! Belgium played good against Canada and played great against Croatia. Just got unlucky. Of course you will not hear that an African team outplayed the number 2 team in the world. It's always about the European favorites playing badly. Pigs
@ethan Johnson I'm just saying u're judging a whole team by one match, you should Morocco now on it's performance in this WC edition, massive tactical mindset and managing the game properly ending with 7 points in that group topping it ! ( Croatia & Canada) played good also, Belgium so over rated totally agree with that !
@ethan Johnson Ethan, Morocco that played vs USA there still only 5 players from that squad also the coach changed 2 mounths before WC starts playing only 3 amical matchs.. and the previous coach had a lot of our main players out because of some conflicts with him.. Now we have the full squad
They spent most of the time talking about Belgium setback, but this Moroccan team is genuinely brilliant with a bunch of talented players playing for big clubs in Europe!
and that where we all know he doesnt know anythinh about football . even the french team have 80 % african players . benzema . mbappe . kante . dembele . .....
With all the things said, it was a great play by Morocco with never say die attitude. We need new champions. Excited to see the new talents in Africa and Asia as well!
@Richard Porter yhea but only Brazil who themselves won in 2002 are gud enough to win it aside from Europe, so highly doubt a new continent is winning this year
@melvin barnett thank you Europe for raising for us amazing players you should the same for every country so the World Cup can be even in every continent
Morocco is not a poor country yes if you compare to European countries but compared to the world and the rest of Africa it's doing alright, and it's getting better and better as we speak.
because they are unfamiliar with them.These football pundits always focus on the European and South American heavyweights; as far as they are concerned nobody else matters. When it comes to the FIFA WC, they need to call on pundits familiar with African and Asian teams to contribute.
Martinez was always a bang average manager. He managed Wigan and Everton in England. Fans of the premier league will always know he was a mediocre manager. How he got the Belgium job baffles me.
@Lone Warrior but the conversation is about Belgium. Argentina has one of the greatest players to Ever grace football, The play Make of all time , even then they have struggled to win major tournaments. Belgium on the other hand have two cereal bottlers at the back . Midfielders who cant control the game , and in world cups get exposed. Whilst Argentina play in South America and has one team that can challenge them 2 if u count Chile
@Ancient knight argentina don't have players from big teams. They are overrated. They don't have players from top teams how many of them are in UCL now ? Messi, Alvarez they are from psg and manc but Alvarez is not a starter for man City.
We are better than people think, if you visit Morocco's games in the last world cup against Portugal and Spain, the referee was waaay in favor of the opposite team, now that it's fair We get our chance to advance
Belgium's gold generation is almost over. We all should accept that Morocco just played well and won. No need to blame Courteous, it was a bad day for him, he is still one the best goalies in the world
I loved how the Belgian & Canadian press underestimate Morocco & think it will be their match to qualify haha . I think they forget the last world cup & Morocco was very close to beat Spain and draw with Portugal
It's not the first time Between Belgium and Morocco 4 games 1 ✓ 1994 _ Bel 1 mor 0 2 ✓1999_ Bel 4 mor 0 3✓ 2008 _ Bel 1 mor 4 4 ✓ 2022 _ belg 0 mor 2 6 Gool for Belgium 6 Gool for Morocco It's like ( derby) classic From Morocco ❤️🤝 hard Luck 🤞👑 Belgium
The Belgian guy is saying "Morocco is a small country". Well i'm just wondering if he ever looked up his country on the map! He'll realize it would represent less than a quarter of Morocco's size 😅🤦🏻♀
Alot of people underestimate Morocco because they are a team from Africa. But 8 of the starting 11 were actually born in Spain, France, Belgium or Netherlands and came though some top academies like Ajax and Real Madrid. Technically, they are a European team, and just as good as Serbia or Switzerland. This result wasn't really a shock considering this aging Belgium side.
@Billy Anderson Not all of them... But guess what compare plz Mahrez to Benzema... Do they look the same? NO. So who do you think looks like a genuine arlgerian...?
@Billy Anderson And what are iberians you dummy... 🤔Guess what Portugal n Spain have the biggest amount of Arabic dna... And guess what AGAIN,when I existed in Greece before thousands of years,they didn't even exist. All these countries have Eastern Mediterranean DNA,that is to say greek dna.
A beautiful and wonderful match that will remain in our hearts, O Aswad, with this ferocity and this organization, I am sure that we will say our word in this wonderful world cup in Qatar 🇶🇦, all make history, and salute to all the nation of Morocco 🇲🇦🇲🇦🔥❤💪❤❤❤
I think it's not a racial thing... it's more about what people expect of each country according to history. I've never heard anything about football in Morocco so I expected them to go out with 0 points. It turns out they are quite good. //Edit: I just remembered the one time I saw something about Morocco: they played at the 2005 U-20 world cup, the one that Messi won.
@Andrew Mijacika Croatia did have more possesion, but what he wants to say is that our players played too safe and stayed behind a lot, which gives you more chance to attack and create with possesion on your side. Against Belgium, we let them possession but we found a balance between defense and offense, therefore creating more chances than them and being clinical in front of goal thanks to our VERY underrated counterattacking wingers (ziyech, boufal) and and laterals (hakimi, mazraoui)
To Craig: Yes, this has been a Golden generation for Belgium. When a nation that didn't even qualify for a number of years in a row suddenly comes up with a team that should have won the World Cup 4 years ago, it is , for them anyway, a Golden Generation. Belgium is not a tier 1 team with traditions like Brazil, Argentina, Germany or France that are in the conversation every single time.
Watch and learn , Moroccan team is 100% different, apparently some people still living in the past , this is the new Moroccan team with a real Moroccan coach. Moroccan team played very well , the performance of Morocco was perfect.
Look at moroccan players in which teams they are playing in and you will understand why they won. Why you are so surprised 🙀 and by the way Morocco isnt a small country 🤣
Tell them Chelsea, Barcelona, bayern Múnich and also one of them is Messi teammate matter of fact the Moroccan players are all over and another thing about this team the substitutes are so skilled that you can't pick which is which other words they all amazing
Sais doesn't play for Wolverhampton anymore, he is also not the one who scored Sabiri did. Most of the guys playing in Morocco never played for France at any age group. Pundits who analyze games without knowing the players they talk about .
@Adedayo Adeniran morocco is a 3rd world country but very open and progressing very fast . You can find lambos and ferraris .. and also homeless people and poverty . But in general as a moroccan id say its a middle country not poor and not thaat rich . Good people hard working very welcoming and with very good sense of humour . And btw theese eggheads are trash they know nothing about morocco. The players are definetly not from france . There are from spain uk france italy all playing in top tier european clubs
LeBeuf doesn't know his geography. He said Morocco is a small country. Moroccan is 10 times bigger than Belgium and is slightly bigger than your France. Another fact for you in 1986 in Mexico, Morocco topped his group ( England, Portugal) and made to the next round and almost eliminated Germany if Matius didn't cheat
Let’s hope Morocco can keep it up. The World Cup will get better the higher the standard world wide. Good luck to Morocco. Enjoy! As countries go, France in terms of population is bigger than Morocco -It all depends what’s meant by bigger.
That Belgium is not a bad team, the manager just needs to make some hard decisions and drop some players. He has some good talent on the bench. Trossard has had a very extraordinary season so far in the EPL. He needs to put him on one of the wings and then remove Kevin from the wing and he puts him in the play making position where Harzard Edin has been playing.
@Lex Kanyima raphina was very key to Leeds . Raphina would have been called to the Brazil national team even if he didn’t go to Barcelona . Point is trossard has had more impact in Brighton compared to hazard in Madrid . Bear in mind, hazard was brought in to replace Ronaldo . He hasn’t even lived up to half the output of Vinicius .
De Bruyne's statement just showed how pessimistic he is...along with some of his teammates....Atleast they should take chances, play with energy, dedication and see where it ends
@Adam Solyman Stupid rules. They should change who the goal counts for to whoever had a bigger contribution to the goal between the last 2 touches to the goal. It's like a player sending a historic shot and it's entering the goal and someone just touches it and the historic goal counts to them.
@AC The Goat The law says that when you participate in the goal and block the vision of the goalkeeper, the goal is counted for you, and the offside is also counted for you. Even though you didn't touch the ball, I mean, Ziyech and Sabiri made assists for Saiss
Leaving trossard,tielemans and de ketelaare on the bench starting vertonghen,alderweireld and eden hazard in midfield and putting debruyne on the wings is the confusion of Martinez as a manager this team would have won a trophy in the last 10 years if they had a decent manager.
It certainly was a legit golden generation for a mid-sized European nation, not sure what Craig was trying to say. This isn't club football where you can just buy a world class player for every position; even the great national teams of major nations had weaker players in their starting selections.
@Dutch Van Der Linde It's you again...Where did you go after claiming Poland would win against Belgium twice ? And sure, The Netherlands are better than Belgium historically, that's true, i don't see how any of that is relevant with what i said tho ? The golden generation has been over for a long time. Still, Belgium will be a top 20 team, even after the golden generation.
@Dean Does Stuff alright Dean just admit that the golden generation is over, once de bruyne, courtois and lukaku retire Belgium will just be an average team again. Oranje will always be clear of Belgium
@ESPN FC: Saiss did not score the first goal, it was Abdelhamid Sabiri. I like ESPN but maybe more credit to Morocco instead of how bad Belgium is? Morocco has developed so much. Look at a Aguerd, went from Rabat to Rennes and then West Ham in a couple of years. We have two of the top backs in the world with Mazraoui (Bayern) and Hakimi (PSG). Bounou (Sevilla) who was chosen the best keeper in La Liga last season. Belgium did not play well, but Morocco is also the reason why.
I love that De Bruyne is being ripped apart for not doing it on his own while carrying the 4 attackers around him. He's playing out of position on the right with 3 players who just aren't terribly good (Hazard isn't good anymore). He's been asked to play four roles across the front, how can the commentators not see this?
It's a 7-game tournament. One off-day and you are out! Any team can be beaten on any given day. It doesn't matter how good you are. The previous game doesn't necessarily determine how you may play in the next game
If that was the case then we should just do a toss up and all go home. With that being said there is some uncertainty in it but soccer is like any other sport is science + the human error or success aspect of to it. Consistency is very important when it comes to the beautiful game!!
@Omar Al mokhtar Croatia being consistently good since they've existed as a country and playing against a country that hadn't qualified for decades didn't have any influence on the score? What are you on? Yes anything can happen in any game, to an extent, but you can't seriously think every game starts as a 50-50?
Why does he say Morocco is a “tiny” country and that people are “suffering”. The country is literally (according to google) 1.8x times bigger then the entire United Kingdom. It is poor yeah, but suffering? And he says “most are from France” only 2 players were born in France. 2 were born in Spain and 3 were born in Holland. The remaining are all born in Morocco.
Wrong, 3 starting players alone were born in the Netherlands. Mazraoui, Sofyan Amrabat , Ziyech. And they have another Dutch born players on the bench Zakaria Aboukhal. So that's 4 in total.
Morocco's defence is great and Belgium is one of the most overhyped teams ever (mostly due to media fawning over their Premier League "stars"). Belgium consistently fall short against any good side.
Playing Eden Hazard whose failing in Spain, while you have Trossard on the bench, whose been killing it in the EPL is because Roberto Martinez is afraid of dropping big players. You should play your best 11, who is on form. Not because of their achievement in the past.
There’s something fishy going on around that team. A day before the tournament they were giving interviews about upcoming Canada game, and Belgian players (there was Meunier and someone else at the presser) were saying how they don’t think they are favorites against Canada, that they are basically not as good as people think. KDB has been talking about their demise the whole time now. I don’t know if they want Martinez fired that much or are rebelling against someone else in the federation. I don’t think that it’s just a question of cultural differences-that Belgian people are super weak mentally
The first goal was from Sabiri not from Saiss. And who cares about Belgium? The news were made by Morocco not Belgium (ps: assuming this video finished at 13 minutes). Eh non Franck, désolé. Pas tous les marocains dans cette équipe ont été formés en France. T’sais , le monde ne tourne pas autour de la France . Y a plusieurs qui ont été formés en Belgique, Pays Bas, Maroc,…
Belgium has been talking themselves out of the WC for a few weeks now, saying other teams have better players, and Martinez hinting there was some tension in the squad. It's not over yet. The last game is a must win for them and Croatia so let's see what happens. Can they step up 100% on Thursday? Let's see.
this is the world cup. it comes once in four years. it's vital to analyze a team by their performance in a particular match. this is not a league like epl or la liga etc where you have a series of games. Morocco played well and dominated, the talk should be more about how they played but this has been about how Belgium didn't show up. again, a tournament is different from the league. don't dwell too much on the past, focus on the approach and look at both teams objectively.
@Jeremy Testicleman and they've done nothing with him and playing a finished player because 6 gears ago he was good doesn't help you today. You must be a Utd fan, forever living in the past.
@Russell ward because in those "6 years" (its actually 3) belgium haven't done jack without him performing. He's playing because he's the only one who actually lived up to the so called "golden generation" at the international stage.
Lukaku will start the next game. He has scored 68 international goals which is comparable to Messi, Ronaldo and Lewa when they were the same age so Stevie and Craig were rather dismissive about the striker's quality.
Going by the intensity Morocco platted against Belgium, any team could have gone down, including France, the outstanding team this World Cup. This World Cup has shown that Asian and African countries are finally catching up with Europe and America in football. Belgium did their best, but best doesn't seem to be enough this World Cup with every country raising their performance bar. It's not true the European and American teams are doing bad this World Cup, it's just that the Asian and African teams are performing better and they've improved miles from 2018. It's good for the football world, finally if football may so desire, we could even have a first-ever World Cup winner from Asia or Africa. You never know, this is football. Anything could happen!
_"You cannot imagine the reaction over there!"_ We don't need to Frank, they've been rioting and smashing up Brussels "celebrating" their victory. A real taste of cultural enrichment for the Belgians.
@Zoey Siddiqi No they were mediocre at Euro 2020, were getting handily beat before the ref gave a soft pen and then didn't give Italy a pen when Jorginho clearly got stamped on in the box.
The same argument can't be used in Spain's case. Despite most of their players not being regulars, they perform well collectively. The coach should take all the blame, not just players.
Nonsense, that was definitely a golden generation for a country like belgium! They just didnt capitalize on their window. Hazard, KDB, Courtois all world class, and Lukaku gets so much hate but for belgium hes been awesome. Not to mention guys like mertens, alderweirld and vertoghen were all great players in their prime!
I didn't recognize the Belgian team again after remembering some of the fantastic football they played two years ago in the European Championships. Then, I thought they were the best team in the competition - now even Saudi Arabia plays better! De Breuyne is but a shadow on the pitch, E. Hazard is non- existent, a passenger like Craig said. They should have lost 0:4 to Canada, who played wonderful football - but were damned lucky to win. Okay, first match, I thought - look at Germany - but this match against Morocco? Belgium are going to lose against Croatia and then go home early- and deserved at that.
racist who forgets that the majority of the national team of his country are Africans. France won its first World Cup thanks to an Algerian Zidane and its second thanks to an Algerian-Cameroonian Mbappe
@Omar Lahlou Wrong, 3 starting players alone were born in the Netherlands. Mazraoui, Sofyan Amrabat , Ziyech. And they have another Dutch born players on the bench Zakaria Aboukhal. So that's 4 in total.
@Hamza Bourriz thanks for your perspective. The way you explain makes good sense. Our friends have invited us in the past to visit them in Marrakech. I would like to get there someday.
*THE WORST WORDS FROM HIM 🤢🤢🤢 THPICAL COLONIAL RA. CIST FRENCH ATTITUDE. CALLING MOROCCO SMALL AND POOR AND SUFFERING. IF SOMEONE HEAR HIM WHAT IMAGES HE GONNA HAVE IN HIS HEAD BUT WHEN HE WILL VISIT RABAT TANGER TETOUAN MARRAKECH..... HE GONNA SURPRISED BETTER THAN SOME EUROPIAN CITIES. AND CALLING IT SMALL WHEN THE DISTANCE ALMOST AS FRANCE WITH 40 MILLION POPULATION*
Haven't y'all get the memo!?? There's nothing like Golden eras of team anymore....Matches can't be predicted with past victories or co-efficient anymore. Talents are rising from everywhere in the world...No more Brazil, Germany, France, Argentina, Netherlands exclusive anymore
Im having fun with this even though my thought goes to Belgium team, they should have won more along the way. I'm having fun with this because Southgate is the same as Martinez. What are they both so afraid of? Losing? 😂🇬🇧🌺🥂⚽
It really is a travesty that the Belgian FA gave the management duties of the most talented crop of footballers they ever produced to a guy who was in relegation dogfights with Wigan and almost took Everton down. 🤦♂What a sad way to end their golden generation.
@Tonny Okello We lost 3-0 against Brazil. Hajji scored against Scotland. Morocco winning one game in 1998 does not make it a rich developed country, come on man, what kind of argument is that?
@Lucie Ellul why are so defensive about Morocco being poor? It's a fact and it's not even an insult or something to be ashamed of! So there was thousands of Moroccans in Qatar to cheer? Okay, so what? Most of them live in Qatar, a great bunch came from the West and the rest from Morocco. Relax, Morocco is a third world country by all measures, it's factual and it's not racist or demeaning to say so. Us being poorer than Western countries, Gulf countries and Japan and South Korea does not make us morally inferior or stupider... Relax....
This tournament is actually African Diaspora vs the world. It highlights the legacy of slave labor & colonialism. At one point France had just one ethnic French player on the pitch with the rest Africans. Yet, France continues to sponsor terror through supported dictatorships in Africa, even confiscating their money. Kudos to Japan, S. Korea for for native effort.
Just frustrating having to see the likes of teams in this world cup having good quality players yet having bang average managers leading them. From Belgium to England to USA to Mexico, I expected much better from them. Just tactics, choices of players being pick is just ridiculous.
@CHlEFFIN You can see it. I am talking about what I saw of them with their teams in the World Cup and the management and reading of the match. If you mean Van Gaal, if you see the Ecuador match, you will see that from the beginning of the match, defender Timber is bad and Ecuador is attacking from his side and he did not change him and his insistence that Jacko play on the left most of At the time of the game, when he moved to the right, he scored a goal, and not because he is a legend coach,
Shame of you guys My be Morocco is the best of the game by good defence and quality of players They have players in Bâyren Munich. Psg. Chelsea .West ham. Saville. Fiorentina . Sampdoria ......
Belguim need to play with an out and out striker next time. Man City did it for a few years and then got Haaland and they are destroying everyone. The Belguim team is quite strong everywhere but needs a striker to finish off everying
Eden hazard is a legend for us but due to injury’s or lack of game time or both he has lost his legs and his dribbling has gone which was his main thing he is a shadow of himself it’s so sad to see I think it is time for him to retire
@RedT this world cup is the best so far..russia world cup was the worst and 2014 was not that good... what are you smoking or are you lgbt fan flag and love media news enjoy this cup
Belgium should start someone who had an outstanding season with Anderlecht or Genk instead of big club players who haven't started 5 games since the start of the season.
De Bruyne said it in an older interview before the WC which was released now. Martinez plays Hazard because he was hoping we’d win easy and hoped the match rhythm would help him get back to his level. Now the metal has been taken out of his foot.
It was already obvious at the last Euros against Italy that it was basically KBD carrying the entire team. No young players have stepped up to reinforce the now very old golden generation and when you're still playing so many old players, it often falls apart REAL quick. It also gets overlooked how underwhelming Martinez is (people say Southgate holds England back but Martinez is probably a worse manager in charge of a squad that at its peak was better). The fact that he's stayed in charge winning nothing for so long is mind boggling; can't imagine the Belgian FA don't give him the axe real soon.
I was really surprised to see Eden called up with how he has been playing for real and those injuries thought he wouldn't go but they called him but y is he in the CAM position is beyond me
Well if u see from the other side even hakim ziyech not playing that much with Chelsea only few minutes but when it comes to homeland u’v to give everything so that’s one of many reasons Morocco beats Belgieum
Martinez incapability to manage a golden generation of Belgium team cost them a title .A most fancied Belgium team deserved at least to Final World cup and European cup. But its too late now
A golden generation who I doubt they would be repeated ever again, entirely wasted due to nut-job coaches; a total of 8 competitions (3 World Cups, 2 Euros, 3 UEFA Nation Leagues).
On-going 2022 World Cup is not done for Belgium. However, from 2014 to 2020, Belgium had never been a happy and well-clicking team in WC and Euro. remember anyone particularly impressive in the Belgium team during that period ?
Kdb one champions league final in his entire career? Iniesta, xavi won it for fun a few times in a 5 year span! Levels bruh top tier! De Bruyne not scaled those heights!
