Brazil 1-2 Belgium

Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne. De Bruyne the thrust, dropping slightly deeper, picking passes, sliding passes, driving eating up the yards like a bullettrain. Hazard constantly dipping weaving clipping his heels round corners, an absolute slipstream, an absolute trace of a player. Like the fucking moon - you see him where he was half a second ago. Lukaku a whole other blade in himself. How much has this man improved from the lumbering, slow inflatable we saw at Old Trafford in August? Dominating centre halfs in the air, for speed, positioning. These three tore Brazil a new one in the first half hour. Belgium could have had three or four by half-time. I'm not Martinez' biggest fan, but he set the team up to allow these lads to flourish today, and for half an hour they cut Brazil, one of the strongest defensive sides in World Cup history to absolute shreds.

Brazil - goes against any actual rationale, but I did kinda feel sorry for Neymar, slumped, dumped, almost in tears as he slunked off the pitch there at the end. The man is undoubtedly an incredible talent, I've seen him dominate games for Barcelona before in ways only a small, special minority of top players are able. But he's got an entourage that does him no good, selling him off to the French league for no obvious benefit. And he's still in essence, a child, a spoilt child inside a man's body. It's a shame we'll probably never see the talent he has unpacked within a context that allows him to consistently deliver and grow into the world's best player.

Still I think this defeat goes back to the old problem for Brazil. The same problem they seem to have faced since the early 1990's. The lack of a passing man right in the hub, the centre of the pitch is what cost them here for me. All that possession Brazil had camped in Belgium's half and no one to stitch it all together, to pull the passes quickly across the pitch and thread gaps in that Belgium backline. What we saw instead was Coutinho, Neymar and Willian stumbling, stuttering on the ball. Coutinho, Neymar and Willian taking 6 touches where 2 would have done, taking 10 seconds where 1 would have done, not trusting the wider collective enough to simply give it and go. Coutinho's ball for the goal was absolutely insane, and on another day Paulinho and Thiago Silva could have grabbed at least a goal each. But it wasn't to be, and when the ball wouldn't fall in the right place to the right man, and when the counter-attacks, flashes of tricks and pop-shots wouldn't quite hit the right spot, there was no one there for Brazil to offer something to different, to probe and allow Brazil's danger men to pick the ball up on the half-turn, a little closer to the Belgian goal.

Carney said to me before the game that he thinks this tournment needs a strong Brazil. I agree with him, it's a shame they ain't through to the semis. It's great to see this generation of outstanding Belgian talent make the big stage upon the big stage though, and I hope they'll do enough to bring France out of their comfort zone next week.