Facing the 61st nation in the world, the Red Flames (20th) never managed to find the fault. Tessa Wullaert had however warned in our newspaper on Friday: the Greeks had gathered earlier, enough to work more on the collective. And it worked pretty well. Cornered, the opponents never gave in, offering the Ives Serneels gang a poor performance which they would have done well without while the path to a third European Championship seemed simple with a rather favorable draw for Belgium in dam.
Marie Detruyer totally absent, the enormous motivation of Hannah Eurlings: our top and our flop of the Red Flames against Greece
The last clean sheet was back
almost two years old.
Tights remain important
Not conceding is good for the confidence of a defense which, however, was not put under enormous pressure either. The most optimistic will say that this shows once again that the level of “small” teams is evolving. This still remains a bad result given the Belgian domination. The Belgian captain and top scorer was there, supported again by the young Eurlings, but the inspiration was sorely lacking to get around the opposing block and surprise Giannakouli.
Obviously, the Euro is still within reach of the Flames and Tuesday’s match at home should smile more on Belgium. This Friday, the captains in any case showed that they remained essential. The staff had wanted to put the young players at kick-off (Janssen and Teulings) and facing such a modest team, it was rather well thought out. Coming up during the match, Cayman (who had not been so offensive for a long time) and Vanhaevermaet finally showed that they were not a blemish on the field. Let’s hope for the future that the group has not shown its limits.
Women’s Euro 2025 goes through the play-offs for the Red Flames: the play-offs, bad memories for Belgium
Greece : Giannakouli, Paterna, Palama (77e Georgiou), Gkatsou, Mitkou, Moraitou, Sarri, Markou, Spyridonidou, Giannaka, Kongouli (18e Koskeridou/57e Saich).
Belgium : Lichtfus, Janssen, De Neve, Kees, Deloose, Missipo, Teulings (59th Vanhaevermaet), Detruyer (46th Cayman), Janssens, Eurlings (68th Blom), Wullaert.
Arbitrator : Ms. Acevedo (Esp).
Warnings : Deloose, Georgiou.
Everything remains open for Turkey and Ukraine
In the other play-off match which interests the Red Flames and Greece (future opponent in the 2nd round), Turkey and Ukraine neutralized each other (1-1). In Istanbul, Apanaschenko (31st) opened the scoring for the Ukrainians, Elif Keskin equalized on the hour mark. The return match is scheduled for Tuesday in Chisinau, Moldova.
Toloba injured
The only representative of Standard Femina in this gathering, Mariam Toloba was not on the match sheet. The attacking midfielder was injured in training on Thursday.
