Belgium Defeats China Amid Another Wave Of Red Cards

With 1 loss in the Olympic Games against Brazil, Belgium was looking to get some points. Going in against China we were the favorites, but the Chinese were looking to impress their home supporters. It is sort of remarkable the impact that home field can bring to a team. China came out fresh and vigorous. They had almost a perfect start to the match. Ball possession was dominated early by the Chinese and in the opening minutes of the first half they almost scored. It was nerve wrecking to watch for a Belgian fan. Belgium regrouped and soon scored the first goal of the match breaking the Chinese momentum and spirit. They seemed down after that. Later in the match two red cards were handed to China: a harsh challenge by Tan and an elbow/harsh push from Zheng. The Argentine referee was questionable, and I was sad to see it end the way it did for China. It seemed a repeat of Belgium’s last match except our opponents had to finish with 9 men this time. Not us. With a crippled Chinese line-up, Kevin Mirallas sealed the match for Belgium ending it 2-0 in our favor. Man of the match has to go to Moussa Dembélé for his presence on the field and early goal. Great result for Belgium. We are in a good position to advance from the group. Belgium should get 3 points against New Zealand. I think we may take it 2-0. Line-ups:
Belgium:
BAILLY Logan
DE ROOVER Sepp
VERMAELEN Thomas
POCOGNOLI Sebastien
SIMAEYS Jeroen
HAROUN Faris
VERTONGHEN Jan
MARTENS Maarten
DE MUL Tom
MIRALLAS Kevin
DEMBELE Moussa
MA-KALAMBAY Yves
CIMAN Laurent
MULEMO Landry
VANDEN BORRE Anthony
ODIDJA-OFOE Vadis
KOMPANY Vincent
FELLAINI Marouane

China:
QIU Shengjiong
TAN Wangsong
FENG Xiaoting
YUAN Weiwei
LI Weifeng
ZHAO Xuri
ZHOU Haibin
ZHENG Zhi
CUI Peng
GAO Lin
JIANG Ning
HAO Junmin
HAN Peng
CHEN Tao
SHEN Longyuan
WAN Houliang
DONG Fangzhuo
LIU Zhenli

1st Half

-Early offside for Belgium on Mirallas.
-Gao has an early scoring opportunity. He had a perfect shot to score. No Belgian defender was in front blocking the shot. Gao’s shot goes wide.
-Bailly made a sloppy kick to get the ball out of his half of the field.
-8′: Goal Belgium! Great shot from Dembélé from a tough angle. The Chinese surely won’t go away. We need to keep pressing.
-Belgium has attacked more since the goal.
-The Chinese have lost confidence it seems. They came out guns blazing. Now they are timid and sitting back.
-Belgium got away with a handball in the penalty area.
-The Young Devils keep getting caught offside.
-Good first half for the Belgians. The match started out nervous for them with China’s Gao nearly scoring in the opening minutes. Then Belgium regrouped, scored, and picked up the pressure in the half.

2nd Half
-Early offside for Belgium.
-Wow. Tan is red carded for a harsh challenge. He threw his body into a Belgian player. It was a strong body slam. China is down to 10 men.
-Jiang almost ties the score for the host nation.
-NO WAY! Now China is down to 9 men. Zheng was red carded. China has to do what Belgium did last week, try to survive the 2nd half with just 9 men. The call seems harsh from the referee. I am speechless, really. I didn’t want the match to turn out like this. And for the host nation… Damn.
-A reverse angle camera shot of the red card incident shows Zeng pushing and it looks like he elbowed the opponent.
-De Mul had a nice shot.
-2nd goal for Belgium late in the match (early 80th minute) thanks to Mirallas.
-China has two great scoring chances. They could just bring the score a little back.
-84′: Belgium’s second goalscorer is substitued, Mirallas.
-Through passes have worked well for Belgium since the field is more open with less men.
-3 minutes added time.
-Final score 2-0 Belgium wins.
-China had 2 red cards but 9 less fouls than Belgium (12-21).