‘I expected more difficulties’ against Neymar: Thomas Meunier
12:16 PM, July 07, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:38 PM, July 07, 2018

‘I expected more difficulties’ against Neymar: Meunier

The Belgium defender Thomas Meunier praised his team’s defending against Brazil and also said that he expected a better show from the Selecao star man Neymar while defending against him during the Red Devils’ 2-1 win over Brazil in their quarter-final match of the World Cup 2018.

Brazil went 2-0 down in a game where they were considered to be the favourites, courtesy of an own goal by Fernandinho followed by a typical Kevin De Bruyne strike from outside the box just at the half-hour mark in the game. Brazil pulled one back through Renato Augusto’s header in the 76th minute of the game but Roberto Martinez’s men held on to the 2-1 lead as the Red Devils moved into a first World Cup semi-final since 1986.

According to a report from Goal.com, Meunier, playing at right wing-back and directly opposed to Neymar, praised his team's defending and said he was surprised not to be tested more by his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate.

“I didn’t expect that, I expected more difficulties, but we were so organised collectively,” Meunier said after the win.

“I always had help from Marouane Fellaini, from Toby Alderweireld. We were really focused on him, on [Philippe] Coutinho, on Marcelo, and we did a really wonderful job. I think we can congratulate ourselves for the job that we did defensively.

“Even offensively I got really frustrated because I didn't touch the ball. I made a lot of sacrifices for the team and I am happy that we won because of that.” Meunier concluded.

Belgium will now face France in their semi-final tie and according to the Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen, Les Bleus will be harder to defeat as they are a more complete team than Brazil.

“I think France are a bit more complete than Brazil are,” Vertonghen said.

“I think it will be harder to break them down.” Vertonghen concluded.

The semi-final match between Belgium and France will take place July 10 at the St Petersburg stadium.  


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