Eden Hazard managed to score two goals as Belgium managed to recover from the mistake of Thibaut Courtois and win over Russia by 3-1 on Thursday. With this win, Belgium has started its qualifying campaign on a good start.
Belgium the semifinalist of the World Cup managed to take the lead in the 14th minute with help from a low strike to the area edge by Youri Tielemans. Unfortunately, Courtois allowed Russia to level up the things with a goal only 2 minutes later.
The goalkeeper of Real Madrid was caught in a nasty possession by the Russian forward player Artyom Dzyuba as he hastily tried to pass the ball to Denis Cheryshev.
The later creativity and speed of Belgium managed to heavily strain the Russian footballers’ defense. Hazard got a penalty when he was tripped by a trailing leg from Yuri Zhirkov. Hazard, in the 45th minute, managed to score a goal which the Russian goalkeeper Guilherme had no chance to stop.
Late in the game, Russia continued their push on Belgium but they took advantage of the space as Michy Batshuayi scored a goal in the 79th minute. Hazard took the score to 3-1 after scoring a goal in the 88th minute.
With this win, Belgium has now won 6 of their last 8 games. Their last loss was against France in the semifinals of the World Cup.
The Russian player Alexander Golovin received a yellow card for kicking an opponent.
On the other hand, Scotland’s effort to make it into the major football tournament went into the air after they lost the match against Kazakhstan by 3-0.
This was Kazakhstan’s fifth win in their total 35 games since they joined the UEFA back in 2002.
In another game of the day, Cyprus rolled for an easy victory over the San Marino by 5-0.
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