Canada are making sure Belgium can only play through their CBs and WBs. Belgium have a roundabout way to get any midfielder on the ball.
Some fouls & little mistakes by Canada but defensive shape-wise, so so good
This say it all. KDB had to move to the WB position for a second to get the ball, looks up, gets sad at literally ZERO options, and has to go back to Vertonghen
It's not a super duper compact shape like we saw from Saudi Arabia, but Canada are forcing Belgium to almost exclusively play around their midfield. A midfield with De Bruyne and Tielemans... if they want the ball they basically HAVE to move wide
So the goal shows Belgium making great use of basically the only way Belgium can beat Canada.
A long ball over all lines for someone to run onto it.
Belgium have alright pace, and Canada aren't gifted with rapid CBs to recover in this.
They've tried it before, it came off now
This is what Argentina lacked, when Saudi Arabia set out a very similar tactic. KSA were also a little higher allowing more time to recover if needed, but Argentina couldn't make use of this.
A blemish on Canada's defensive tactics, but it's still be pretty good overall
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