\n<\/p>\n
For Belgium, Monday\u2019s 4-1 victory over the United States was doubly sweet. They advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals, as well as overcoming what they saw as injustice off the field.<\/p>\n
The buildup to the match had been tinged with controversy after Fifa had suspended the red card US striker Folarin Balogun was given in the last 32 against Bosnia and Herzegovina. That meant Balogun was free to play against Belgium instead of serving a one-match ban. When it emerged that Donald Trump had lobbied for Balogun\u2019s red card to be overturned, Belgium \u2013 and other nations \u2013 were outraged: Uefa called the decision \u201cincomprehensible and unjustifiable\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Belgian team\u2019s official social media channels quickly sent out a message after their 4-1 victory was confirmed. \u201cOverturn this,\u201d the posts read<\/a>, alongside images of their goal celebrations.<\/p>\n Allow Instagram content?<\/p>\n This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Belgium\u2019s captain, Youri Tielemans, said the Balogun controversy had helped motivate his team.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be honest: we held a meeting when we heard the news,\u201d Tielemans said after Monday\u2019s game. \u201cWe told ourselves we needed to do our talking on the pitch. That\u2019s what we did today. I\u2019m very proud of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said the team had faced a \u201clack of respect\u201d in the US over the last few days.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople said they could easily beat us, but I think we\u2019ve just proven today that we really are a good team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing a great match.\u201d<\/p>\n Belgium winger Dodi Luk\u00e9bakio <\/strong>said that although the team were aware of the Balogun incident they did not let it distract them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t understand really why he was allowed to play, because he got the red card, but we didn\u2019t want to go too much into it, we wanted to be focused and to play our game, and that\u2019s what we did today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Midfielder Nicolas Raskin echoed his teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was always a justice somewhere in life and the \u200cfact that something can happen like that, you can put it all you want, but we don\u2019t think that was fair,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cAnd \u200btoday, I think it just brings us a little bit of luck. We needed to win the game and the message throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n Manager Rudi Garcia, however, played \u2060down the row when asked if it had fuelled his players.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, it \u200bwasn\u2019t needed or necessary … what \u200breally mattered to us is our gameplan,\u201d he said, adding that \u200bhe had spoken \u200cwith Balogun after \u200bthe final whistle. \u201cHe came \u200bto talk to me, I really like that. \u2026 It\u2019s not his fault, he\u2019s not the one to blame and that\u2019s what I told him.\u201d<\/p>\n Belgium will play Spain on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Belgium, Monday\u2019s 4-1 victory over the United States was doubly sweet. They advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals, as well as overcoming what they saw as injustice off the field. The buildup to the match had been tinged with controversy after Fifa had suspended the red card US striker Folarin Balogun was given in 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NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"For Belgium, Monday\u2019s 4-1 victory over the United States was doubly sweet. They advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals, as well as overcoming what they saw as injustice off the field. The buildup to the match had been tinged with controversy after Fifa had suspended the red card US striker Folarin Balogun was given in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33846,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33844\/revisions\/33846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}