Rudi Garcia defended his Belgium side after the 0-0 draw against North Macedonia in World Cup qualifying, claiming that “we could have played even without Thibaut Courtois”.
Despite a fine performance from Jeremy Doku on the left flank and a strong display from Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium were unable to get past Stole Dimitrievski, who made five saves for the visitors on Friday.
The Red Devils scored 2.85 expected goals (xG) from 25 shots, compared to their opponents’ 0.06 from three attempts, but could not find the goal that would have sent them to the top of Group J.
Belgium remain second in the group, one point behind North Macedonia with a match to go, while Wales are just two points behind the leaders.
Despite their failed attempts in Ghent, Garcia doesn’t think his players could have done much more to win the match.
He said: “It’s not a bad performance because overall we played the game I expected from my team.
“On the other hand, it is a poor result considering the way the match went.
“I think we did what we needed to do to win this game, except we didn’t get our shots on target enough. Five out of twenty-five in total. So yeah, we dominated this game.”
“We were good at counter-pressing and winning the ball back high. We could have even played without Thibaut Courtois, we didn’t concede anything in the match. I don’t have much to criticize about my players.”
Friday #WCQ results pic.twitter.com/ozRlZuqHs7
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Belgium now prepare to travel to Wales for what could be a crucial Group J match on Monday.
Garcia believes their next match will be more open and better suited to his side because of what is at stake for both teams.
“We are not first, as I had hoped, but we still have one match in hand than North Macedonia,” Garcia added.
“In Cardiff the opposition will be completely different. Because Wales have to win. It will be a team that will perhaps apply more pressure and offer more athleticism.”
“But we will have to remain ourselves and play our game. We will certainly have more space to exploit.”
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