Belgium felt a sense of relief after narrowly winning a thrilling World Cup qualifier against Wales on Monday. The 4-3 victory at home gave coach Rudi Garcia a lot to think about.
Belgium started strong and were leading 3-0 within the first 30 minutes of the Group J match at King Baudouin Stadium. But Wales made an impressive comeback, leveling the score at 3-3 with 20 minutes to go. Just two minutes before the end, Kevin De Bruyne scored the winning goal for Belgium.
“The most important thing is that we won,” Garcia said after Belgium’s second qualifier for the 2026 World Cup in North America. “It’s hard mentally to lose a three-goal lead, but we stayed strong and kept going. It’s fitting that Kevin was the one who scored the winner.”
De Bruyne had played well throughout the game and was in the right place to finish a cross from Youri Tielemans for the final goal.
Tielemans, who captained the team that night, admitted they were mainly feeling relieved.
“We’re glad we won, but we know we should never have let them come back like that,” he said.
“I don’t really know how it happened. But with the national team, strange things can happen.
We thought we could win the game earlier, but then we slowed down. After that, we let in a goal and the other team gained confidence. At that point, they were just playing better than us.
We needed to defend better as a team and pick the right time to fight back, but we didn’t do that properly.”
Belgium gave away a late equaliser in their first match against North Macedonia on Friday, and their defence is now under more pressure after letting Wales score three goals.
Belgium will play their next qualifier away against Liechtenstein on September 4, then host Kazakhstan three days later.
