So Hungary head home – after a mutual show of appreciation with their fans – while Belgium motor on to a quarter-final meeting with Wales on Friday. They took just one point against Gareth Bale and co in their qualifying group but on tonight’s evidence must be considered favourites to reach the semi-final. Thanks for reading. Until next time …
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Full-time! Hungary 0-4 Belgium
A message to the doubters and haters here. Hungary were a class below but Belgium – especially Hazard – were awfully impressive here.
90 min +2: Fellaini is booked for an elbow on Szalai. Then the Hungary player is booked for reacting angrily.
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GOAL! Hungary 0-4 Belgium (Carrasco)
90 min: It is a thrashing. Nainggolan feeds Carrasco who takes a touch, buying himself a yard or two more of space and then shoots low past poor Kiraly.
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90 min: Batshuayi is booked for kicking the ball away – when leading 3-0. That was a bit silly.
88 min: Dzsudzsak takes a free-kick from about 30 yards and it hits Witsel exactly where it hurts – actually, I think even those of us watching on TV felt it.
86 min: All the minnows are heading home and there has been no real surprise in the knockout stages yet, apart from maybe Portugal beating Croatia. Which means you know what for Iceland tomorrow evening.
Eden Hazard: Has ended a goalless run of 716 mins at major tournaments for Belgium with his 3rd shot against Hungary #HUNBEL
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 26, 2016
82 min: Bode replaced Juhasz between the second and third goal, there, but the gap was so short we weren’t shown it on TV.
81 min: And that is Hazard’s final act. Fellaini is on for him. Yin and yang, eh? What a performance from the captain – the outstanding individual performance of the tournament so far?
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GOAL! Hungary 0-3 Belgium (Hazard)
79 min: Stunning. A Hungary attack breaks down and Belgium break. Hazard collects possession on the left and within seconds cuts in and sends a clinical, perfect shot on his right into the bottom right corner.
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GOAL! Hungary 0-2 Belgium (Batshuayi)
78 min: “Bat shit crazy” (again, sorry) With his first touch the substitute taps home, but really, the credit should go to Hazard. De Bruyne’s corner is deep, the Chelsea player takes it down and plays a one-two before putting a cross on a plate for the striker.
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77 min: Hazard plays his umpteenth delicious through ball, to Carrasco, who again dozes and is cut out by Juhasz for a corner.
76 min: Lukaku comes off – continuing his run of being removed in each game – is replaced by West Ham target Michy Batshuayi, making his first appearance in the tournament.
75 min: Lovrencsics finds himself in acres of space on the left but his cross is disappointing. Pinter is replaced by Nikolic, but at least there was no Betrayal from the departing player (last one, I promise).
72 min: Hazard threads a lovely pass towards Carrasco in a central area but the sub is a little rusty and cannot pull off a pirouette.
70 min: Carrasco replaces Mertens. A straight swap.
68 min: It’s a deep one, chested down by Juhasz, who then shoots across goal and wide. Vermaelen’s booking ensures he will miss the quarter-final against Wales on Friday if Belgium close this out.
@alansmith90 Did the BBC commentator just repeat the story that a Hungarian journalist told on Football Weekly and pass it off as his own?
— Mike Meehall Wood (@MikeMeehallWood) June 26, 2016
Maybe they have the same sources … but they were eerily similar.
68 min: Vermaelen is booked for a hacking down Pinter. Dzsudzsak will take the free kick from deep on the left.
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66 min: Pinter almost rips up the script (sorry)! He shoots from 25 yards, it’s deflected off Alderweireld and loops goalwards but Courtois does well to tip the ball over for a corner. Dzsudzsak takes but Belgium manage to get rid.
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65 min: Vermaelen concedes an obvious corner but a goal kick is given, leaving Szalai furious.
63 min: Was Hazard saving himself for the Euros during the domestic season? He has been awesome this evening.
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61 min: Hazard is taken down by Elek, who is shown a yellow card. De Bruyne’s delivery from deep is headed away. The big problem for Hungary is that Belgium recycle the ball every time they get clear. Hazard cuts back in from the left. He is crowded out and passes to Witsel, who then lays off to Nainggolan. The Roma midfielder blasts high and wide.
59 min: De Bruyne swings a corner in. Kiraly claims it.
58 min: Hungary’s good spell is coming to an end, you sense. Belgium have regained more control.
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55 min: A Belgium attack breaks down and Dzsudzsak breaks on the right. But he runs out of time and space and fails to find Szalai – that could have/should have/would have produced a good chance for Hungary.
53 min: Elek has been lively since coming on. Now Szalai goes close by getting in front of Vermaelen from a Dzsudzsak cross from the left, but the Belgium defender gets the last touch. Dzsudzsak’s corner is cleared.
52 min: Lukaku feeds De Bruyne, who then goes it alone but scuffs his shot slightly.
50 min: Szalai, fed by Elek, shoots over.
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50 min: Robin McGrother emails: “Has the rule changed? I always thought the ball had to go forward from a kick off but with only one man in the centre circle he can either shoot or pass it back. Clear this up for us!” It changed last month – it can go back and only one player has to be in the circle now.
47 min: De Bruyne fizzes in a free-kick from the left. It is deflected out for what should be a corner, but the offside flag is also up.
46 min: Within seconds Hazard forces Kiraly to save – that’s his eighth of the game. Hazard takes the corner. It’s cleared.
Restarted!
46 min: Akos Elek is on for Gera, who looked all of his 37 years.
Oh my, this is getting good. We may creep into Saturday’s Review supplement at this rate.
William Stephenson: “Tony Walton may want to know that John Fowles, the existentialist author of the The French Lieutenant’s Woman (the novel scripted by Pinter for the screen) was a great believer in Hazard, a force he claimed determined human affairs despite our best efforts. So could Eden Hazard have an existentialist influence on Pinter in this game?”
Ken Babstock: “Alan … I’m missing all the opaque in-jokes about this Pinter person. But was wondering if perhaps Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s 1989 novel, translated as ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’, was an inspired bit of footballing prescience by yet another household name from mitteleuropa. And to press the point a little, another one’s translated as ‘The Turin Horse.’ Will they meet Italy’s back line? Or Pogba? The mind reels.”
@alansmith90 As Pinter may have written:
— R. Marr (@RolloTreadway) June 26, 2016
I saw Ferenc Puskas in his prime
Another time, another time
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Ha!
@alansmith90 It's not halftime so much as a Pinteresque pause. Has someone already done that one?
— Ben Knight (@BenWernerKnight) June 26, 2016
@alansmith90 loving the pinter banter. My favorite has to be celebration
— Ahan Penkar (@ahanpenkar) June 26, 2016
Half-time! Hungary 0-1 Belgium
45 min: There will be no added time. That was very open, there were plenty of chances and while the Red Devils should be out of sight by now, the gap is only a single goal. Hungary did come into the game a tad more as the half progressed but look a level below.
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44 min: Pinter update: Mark Regan says “he is so detached, he’s in A Kind of Alaska.” While Tony Walton asks if anybody can fit The French Lieutenant’s Woman in.
42 min: Hazard is denied by Kiraly and then Mertens has a toe poke deflected out for a corner by Lang. This has been a very good game, you know, but Belgium still have that capacity to shoot themselves in the foot.
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41 min: Now Dzsudzsak has a shot from range, pulling a low shot narrowly wide of the bottom right corner. Courtois looked to have the goal covered.
39 min: Lovrencsics cuts in and gets enough space away from Witsel, who dangles a lazy leg, to get a shot off from about 25 yards. It’s close, but not close enough: missing the top right corner by two feet.
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37 min: “No Celebration – and no Birthday Party either, presumably,” Tony Walton emails about Pinter. “But tell us, please, is he playing as The Caretaker - or merely as the Dumb Waiter?” He is meant to be the Go-Between at the moment.
35 min: De Bruyne takes and it is saved brilliantly by Kiraly, tipping the ball on to the bar. Lukaku hits over from the rebound. The keeper may have hurt his wrist with that save too. He is grimacing and pumping his fist.
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34 min: Kadar is booked for scything down Mertens, who is offside when fed by Hazard but heading through on goal with no flag. That’s a yellow for the left back – he will miss the next game if there is one for Hungary.
33 min: Witsel passes to Mertens on the right edge of the box but the winger cuts in and finds himself in trouble named Kadar.
31 min: Pinter is in No Man’s Land at the moment. He needs to improve, survey the Landscape in front of him, or there will be no Celebration.
28 min: Hazard picks up a lose throw-in from Lang deep in Belgium’s half and breaks quickly. He plays a give and go with Lukaku but the captain’s run is so quick he is offside by the time the return pass comes. He would have been straight through on goal, too.
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26 min: Pinter tries to run menacingly at Belgium’s defence from halfway, but he is chased down by Lukaku – yes, really – and loses control of his own dribble.
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24 min: Dzsudzsak, tracked by Hazard, shoots from range. His daisy cutter is smothered by Courtois.
22 min: Hungary enjoy an improved couple of minutes. Lovrencsics gives it to an overlapping Kadar on the left. His cross is a deep one towards Szalai but Courtois’ arms are just long enough to reach the delivery before it drops for the striker.
20 min: A lovely turn from Vertonghen on the left takes Lang out of the game and finds Lukaku with a cross. He holds the ball up with his back to goal before laying off to Alderweireld. The goalscorer shoots over and it may be half-time before the ball lands.
19 min: De Bruyne swings in another Belgium corner. Szalai heads it out of danger and Juhasz swings it clear.
16 min: Courtois! Vertonghen plays a tame backpass to him. He goes to kick it but slips and … the ball runs narrowly wide for a corner. That was embarrassing for the Chelsea keeper but he is lucky not to have conceded.
15 min: Kiraly denies De Bruyne! Lukaku, dropping deep, plays a lovely sweeping pass from the centre circle that splits the Hungary defence. De Bruyne powers clear and shoots low but the veteran goalkeeper does well to close the angle before saving.
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Belgium fans are now singing “Don’t take me home”, which is quite amusing when sung in a non-British accent. I heard a group of Austrians singing it on the streets of Paris Wednesday and it was very funny.
(Ok, maybe I am just easily amused)
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12 min: Belgium come back on the attack. Meunier takes a throw-in to Mertens near the corner but he is dispossessed by Kadar, who clears forward.
GOAL! Hungary 0-1 Belgium (Alderweireld)
9 min: Nagy concedes a foul on the left wing. De Bruyne sends it in and the Tottenham defender heads home. He is left completely unmarked, just behind Lukaku, who also rises to try and head home. That is just what Belgium deserve for a dominant start, but Hungary’s marking there was dreadful.
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8 min: Belgium look in the mood early on. Hazard feeds inside to De Bruyne near the D. He switches from his right on to his left but his shot is blocked.
7 min: De Bruyne takes towards Witsel but Hungary clear.
6 min: And now Hazard zips down the left and almost finds Lukaku. Hungary can only half clear and De Bruyne sends a floating cross back in from the right towards Lukaku. The Everton man turns and shoots but it’s deflected out for a corner.
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5 min: Lovrencsics sends a pair of crosses in from the right. Both are batted away.
4 min: “Is Pinter a playmaker?” asks Brian McCloskey. He is playing in central midfield but as the more advanced one. And, also, the title is playwright.
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3 min: Belgium, as you would expect, have started on top with plenty of possession here. Hungary’s aim must be to frustrate and counter.
Kick-off!
1 min: Belgium kick off, in a light green change kit, playing from right to left as we watch. Hungary have red shirts, white shorts and socks.
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A late change for Hungary: Adam Pinter is in for Laszlo Kleinheisler, who was injured in the warm up.
That means they will now line up as follows: Kiraly; Lang, Juhasz, Guzmics, Kádár; Gera, Naghy Lovrencsics, Pinter, Dzsudzsák; Szalai.
And in the interest of fairness, Belgium start with: Courtois; Meunier, Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Witsel, Nainggolan; De Bruyne, Mertens, Hazard; R Lukaku.
The teams are out. The anthems are being belted out by some players. How do we reckon this one will go? The team with limited technical ability? Or the technical diamonds lacking teamwork?
History lesson, part deux
Kari Tulinius emails: It’s not been played up as much as the Austria-Hungary game, but Hungary-Belgium is another Hapsburg derby, as Belgium was once “The Austrian Netherlands.” Why they changed it I can’t say, people just liked it better that way.
A history lesson
Nineteen years ago, Wilmots, now the Belgium manager but at the time a Schalke player, scored against Kiraly, the Hungary goalkeeper then and still first choice now but at the time also with Hertha Berlin.
The teams
Hungary: Kiraly; Lang, Juhasz, Guzmics, Kádár; Gera; Lovrencsics, Kleinheisler, Nagy, Dzsudzsák; Szalai.
Belgium: Courtois; Meunier, Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Witsel, Nainggolan; De Bruyne, Mertens, Hazard; R Lukaku.
Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia)
Hello. Few would have expected Hungary to reach this stage at the outset – and definitely not as group winners. But here they are, with 37-year-old Zoltan Gera in midfield and 40-year-old Gabor Kiraly in goal. Bernd Storck’s team are an illustration of the theme of the group stages: how a united side can outperform a more talented outfit. They followed up that opening, decisive win against Austria with a late equaliser against Iceland and a topsy-turvy 3-3 with Portugal. Reaching the last 16 means this tournament will have been a success. But can they go one further? Can they produce another evening of Magyar Magic?
There can be no doubt Belgium’s squad contains far more individual brilliance. Yet Marc Wilmots’ team still do not appear completely together. They were excellent in the second half against the Republic of Ireland having started with a shocker against Italy. Against Sweden, they needed a late(-ish by the tournament’s standard) goal to win. Is there more to come? Or are they disconnected to the extent that we will not see them reach their true potential in this tournament?
So many questions. Two hours from now, we should have some answers.
Kick-off is at 9pm in Toulouse, which is 8pm BST. Team news if to follow imminently.
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