Belgians escape major upset as Canada fail to make pressure tell in thrilling Group F encounter.<\/p>\n
Belgium have weathered a Canadian storm in a thrilling Group F encounter to record a 1-0 victory, courtesy of Michy Batshuayi\u2019s 44th-minute strike.<\/p>\n
The European side, ranked the second-best in the world, struggled to match Canada\u2019s intensity at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on Wednesday night but will be thankful to have avoided a major upset by escaping with a win.<\/p>\n
Canada will rue a litany of missed chances, including star player Alphonso Davies\u2019s failure to convert a penalty after just 11 minutes.<\/p>\n
Thibaut Courtois\u2019s save denied the 22-year-old from scoring what would have been Canada\u2019s first-ever World Cup goal. In their only other World Cup appearance in Mexico in 1986, Canada lost all three matches and failed to hit the back of the net once.<\/p>\n
Undeterred by the early setback, the Canadian attack continued to press throughout the first 45 minutes, with their speed creating havoc in the Belgian defence and keeping Courtois busy.<\/p>\n
But against the run of play, Belgium took the lead when Batshuayi broke between two defenders, ran on to a long ball and shot past goalkeeper Milan Borjan just before the break.<\/p>\n
Batshuayi was only playing because of first-choice striker Romelu Lukaku\u2019s injury, which could have him missing the entire group stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Belgians escape major upset as Canada fail to make pressure tell in thrilling Group F encounter. Belgium have weathered a Canadian storm in a thrilling Group F encounter to record a 1-0 victory, courtesy of Michy Batshuayi\u2019s 44th-minute strike. The European side, ranked the second-best in the world, struggled to match Canada\u2019s intensity at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6640,22],"tags":[830,799,6413,6033],"class_list":["post-112600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-fifa-2022","category-sports","tag-belgium","tag-canada","tag-fifa-world-cup-2022","tag-world-cup-2022"],"yoast_head":"\n