De Bruyne recently said how he was tired of playing Wales – this was the ninth meeting between these sides in the last 10 years and the fourth in the last 18 months – but he scored a superb goal and set up another for Michy Batshuayi. en route to winning the Nations League. Things looked ominous for Wales in the interval when Belgium should have been out of sight. De Bruyne had a shot hit the woodwork, Youri Tielemans deflected over, Eden Hazard had a shot just wide of the post and Batshuayi put another over. But if anything reflected how stagnant things were for Belgium, it was the sight of Roberto Martínez, one of the game’s calmer and milder characters, receiving the first red card of his coaching career after wasting time. “It’s a new experience,” Martínez said. “I was surprised. I probably should have let the ball go and that was it, but the moment I kicked the ball [away] … I accept the referee’s decision.” In reality, Wales were lucky to be only two goals behind at the interval, but the way they responded should encourage them for their first World Cup in 64 years. There are 60 days left until they kick off in Doha with the USA and in the end, despite a lackluster first half, there was no shortage of reasons for optimism. Brennan Johnson’s fearlessness proved to be the catalyst as the Welshman plotted a way back into the game, his cross being headed in by Kieffer Moore, and Johnson pulled a shot wide five minutes later after meeting Connor Roberts’ clearance. Kiefer Moore returns to Wales during their defeat by Belgium. Photo: Shutterstock “It’s a big lesson for us,” said Wales manager Rob Page, who switched to a 5-4-1 at the break. “Every time we pushed up they played us. We changed that at half-time and dropped a bit deeper and changed the shape.” Gareth Bale came on as a 64th-minute substitute, but Aaron Ramsey, Ben Davies and Joe Allen were all absent through injury. Romelu Lukaku was a notable absentee for Belgium and perhaps it should have come as no surprise that they powered through a one-sided first half and fired like a well-oiled machine, given that seven of their starting XI also started the Euro quarter-final 2016 defeat to Wales, with goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey the only survivor from that day. Wales started brightly but found it difficult from the moment De Bruyne opened the scoring on 10 minutes, capping off a typically classy Belgian move. Thomas Meunier produced a clever first-time pass down the right channel for Batshuayi, who spied De Bruyne on his left. What happened next was as delightful as it was vicious, painful from the Welsh perspective. De Bruyne advanced to the edge of the box and took a side-footed first-time shot at goal, curling his effort past Hennessey, powerless to prevent the ball nestling into the corner. De Bruyne’s artistry caused no problems and his perfect cross to the back post eight minutes before the break gave Batshuayi a tap-in. Martinez was among those left gurgling. “It’s a message to all our fans: Don’t take watching Kevin De Bruyne play for granted,” he said. “I think he is the most incredible playmaker in world football at the moment, the way he sees the game, his understanding of time and space and then the execution as well. I thought his performance was magical, but he did it consistently. Sometimes I look at him and we’re so, so lucky to have a player like Kevin.” De Bruyne walked off to a standing ovation during six minutes of second-half stoppage time, but those of the Welsh faith may have had other names on their lips, so strongly did Wales finish the game. “It was a game of two halves,” Johnson said. “In the first half, we lacked a lot of belief, we didn’t know how good we could be and especially what we could bring next. We didn’t show any of that. In the second half we came out with a different mentality and we were proud. Rob Page told us to believe in ourselves, to show why we’re here and I think we did.”
